First Drop
by Captain-Creeper
Summary: Anima Nul, Wolf faunus with a secret, decides to go to Beacon. A crazy murderer is slaying people at random. Ozpin drinks his coffee. Who knows what will happen next?
1. Late Night Crime

(Before we start this off, I want to say this will be the first story I take seriously in the sense that I want it to be decent. So prepare for a decent, or shitty given Im writing it, story. This is an AU of my other story series, which has yet to have a series name. It is an AU in the fact that I am including a character who I enjoy using from the second book, and having her come along within part of the canon story as a student with her own spin on it in relation to the other students during class time stuff, which means I'll need to rewatch the entire first volume up to at least foreverfall given what I have planned. She is mentioned in the second book and she is four years younger than the member of team RWBY,who is in her early twenties, when she is just starting Beacon. The other OC's from that story will not be making an appearance, but new OC's will be making an arrival. I apologize if you have any confusion while reading as I am not the best at explaining things, Please Review, even if it is to just insult my shitness, cause I will need some tips to get better, and I am in no way a good self taught writer. I plan to upload at least once a week, and I'm forcing myself to upload only one chapter a day in hopes that my brain will allow me to take my time. Any questions or concerns or just random opinions, feel free to PM me, that is all, now sit back, or walk, whatever you're doing while you read, and enjoy, also quick apology for this large ass paragraph that is my author's note)

Such a wonderful, dark, peaceful, night. Here was this wonderful faunus girl, Anima Nul, who was positively excited for tomorrow. Her white wolf ears were standing completely up, her white wolf tail was wagging, and her yellow eyes completed the look of animality about her. Her skin had a natural light tan to it, being in the middle of brown and white. Her clothing was currently just casual wear, a plain short sleeved t-shirt green in color and a pair of track pants so she could move around better. She loved parkour and was quite good at it. Her armor would be useful tomorrow, but she had no need of it tonight. Stopping in a dust shop, "Dust till Dawn", The sixteen year old was going to stock up on supplies, dust vials mainly. She would be safer with crystals, but vials were much more unstable, and therefore much more fun. Inside the store was the same old man as always, and that cloak girl who never took out her headphones, and just read weapon magazines. Anima was a bit taller than that girl. A bit unsettling was the fact that he had never heard her talk ever. She wore almost gothic attire, a red cloak, a black skirt with red under it, two silver crosses on the front kept her hood pinned on, and she wore black leggings and black boots with red at the top and on the bottom. The door opened and Anima took a look at the newcomers, then hid quickly. One of them was that scumbag Roman Torchwick. Gentleman wearing a White suit, red collared, and a grey scarf, with a bowlers hat, orange hair covering one of his green eyes. While he had some sense of fashion, he was a criminal, and a jerk. He was holding his cane in his right hand and smoking a cigar in his left, while behind him were some goons from that night club, red shades, black top hat to go with the black suit and shoes. Each one armed with a type of sword, one with an axe, and one with a shotgun, probably to induce more fear. All the while that damn gun lover is blissfully unaware.

"Hello pops"

"Please, just take my lien and leave"

"We don't want your lien, we're just here for some dust before dawn rises"

Shit, he's getting robbed and I can't do shit about it without leveling the store, plus I doubt I could take on Roman. Also, really? The shitty puns?

"Hey you, hands up!"

Oh shit, that gun nut's been spotted by that axe wielding goon.

"I said hands up!" He walks over and taps her shoulder, causing her to take off her headphones and let them hang on her neck.

"Are you robbing me?"

My god she's hopeless.

"Yes I am now put your ha-UGH"

I turn slowly to look at what had just occured to see little red riding hood in a pounce like pose with her knee in the goon's chest and go through the window with him...Damn. And to follow that she whipped out a small red rectangular thing, which quickly began unfolding into a huge fucking scythe. The gun nut was carrying a HCSS (High Caliber Sniper Scythe). Just, just wow.

"...Who invited the fairytale brat? Isn't it past your bedtime?"

"I don't have a bedtime"

"Oh we have a rebel, run home red, or my men here will teach you a lesson"

"I think you need a lesson, didn't anyone tell you it's wrong to steal?"

Nice comeback, bad idea.

"You, shoot her" He points at the shotgun holding henchman.

Not if I can help it, we can take him down together, hopefully, but red needs help.

As the shotgun holding Henchman moves to fire, Anima hurries toward him, grabbing a briefcase of stolen dust crystals a goon sat on the counter, and brings it down on his head right before he fires, knocking him out. she follows by grabbing the shotgun, and barely dodges a horizontal sword slice from one of the minions, and quickly finds herself by the girl in red.

"Hi?"

"You know, I think today is the first time I've heard you talk"

The girl chuckles a little.

"Names Ru-"

"I see you brought a pet red"

"A PET?" Oh boy, he pissed her off, never piss of a faunus dust manipulator holding a case of crystals. She kicks the case open and picks up a red and a yellow dust crystal, fire and lightning. Using the crystals she focuses the lightning on the henchmen in the store since it's easier to minimize accidents, and as Roman steps out of the shop a torrent of flames assault him, which he easily dodges.

"Jeez, you have the temper of a rabid dog"

"Calm it down, he's trying to make you angry" The red cloaked girl converts her scythe into a sniper rifle and fires at him while some still standing goons decide it would be a good idea to attack. To respond to this they found themselves blasted into the air by a fireball, and the ones who avoided that were shocked until incapacitated. Meanwhile red and Roman were facing off, he swings his cane at her, she blocks with the shaft of the weapon, he kicks her leg out from under her, she rolls up and uses recoil from a shot from her scythe to dodge a stab by the cane, he fires a blast at her, she uses some rose petal trick, probably a semblance, to dodge it. Eventually he is stuck between the two, Anima holding a wall of fire above her and concentrated lightning in her hand, and red over there with her scythe at the ready. To the girls' dismay a dropship arrives overhead, and two mini guns under the pilot's seat are pointed directly at the red girl.

"Hey red lookout!"

"I see it!" The ship opens fire, making her use her semblance to evade it, and Roman makes a break for a conveniently placed ladder. Anima lets loose a blaze, which is blocked by an orange glyph, which releases a geyser of flames directly at Anima's which causes them to fight each other and eventually die out. By the time the fire clears that bastard is already long gone, up the ladder and probably into the dropship as it starts flying away. The girl in red uses her scythe to propel her to the ship and she starts slicing at an engine, so Anima shocks the other, intent on bringing it down just like the red wearing girl. The dropship doors open and Roman fires several blasts at Anima, while glyphs appear in the air shooting fire balls into the air which rain down on red, who has to dodge it by jumping off to a building. Just then some of the shattered road parts and building parts move up into the air and forms a spear, which strikes the ship repeatedly. Quickly Roman is replaced by a girl in a red dress whose only visible features are her skin, the dress, and her glowing left eye. Looking behind them the girls' see none other than Glynda Goodwitch, known hunter and Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon's, assistant. Although that red cloaked girl didn't seem to know who she was, but was psyched none the less. Red continued firing upon the left engine while Anima concentrates blasts of fire and lightning on the right, and Glynda makes it hail spikes of ice and uses purple orbs to fend off fireballs. Though sadly the dropship managed to pull out of the ice storm and leave, despite one engine being full of bullets and smoking, and the other having nearly been short circuited. At the end of that Anima's dust crystals were out, and red seemed to be checking her ammo.

She hadn't even left for Beacon yet and things were already looking to be a very interesting year.


	2. A smack on the wrist

"Do you two have any idea how much trouble you could have caused?"

"Uh...I think we did cause minor collateral damage…" I answer slowly, studying Goodwitch's face for a hint of what she's thinking, but damn this girl has a poker face.

"We, uh, maybe could've, possibly exploded a uh, dust store?" Red says slowly, more out of nervousness than calculating.

"Yes, and do you know how much danger you imposed upon yourself?"

Well, a lot obviously, so that's how I answer. "We could have died"

"Well, I don't think we w-Whatthewolfgirlsaidpleasedonthurtmemiss!" One stern glare from Goodwitch made her go into freak out mode. Wow.

"If it were up to me you two would be sent home with a pat on the back"

"phew I thou- OW!"

"And a smack on the wrist"

"That fucking hurts ow!"

The red girl scoots back while I continue holding my injured wrist, god damn this huntress's weapon, feels like my teacher from Signal with her damn ruler. And then she did it again to my other wrist.

"Behave yourself. That language will not be tolerated over such petty things as a slap on the wrist. There is someone here to see you girls. I'll send him in" The huntress leaves, her cape fluttering behind her.

"Who was that?"

"That was Glynda Goodwitch, assistant to Ozpin"

"Woah!"

"Yep"

The sounds of a person walking caught my and apparently red's attention. Being a faunus my eye sight comes with a natural nightvision like sight, so I can see the man coming before red can. My surprise on my face might have given away that it was an important person to red, but this was professor Ozpin. Silver hair, middle aged, Black unzipped suit, black buttoned vest, green undershirt, dark green pants and black shoes, shaded green glasses to go with his dark green scarf, which has a purple cross on it with some type of jem in the center. His eyes were brown, and his eyebrows were black, leading to the conclusion that this man has either dyed his hair, was born with silver hair and black eyebrows, or had been through a large amount of stress. He was holding a plate of cookies, which kinda throws me for a loop here, why the cookies?

Whenever he made it into the room red smiled at him and he set down the plate of cookies and a glass of milk.

"They are your favorite aren't they? Go ahead, eat. I have some questions for your friend first"

Red tore into those cookies, I mean, that was some predator meets prey stuff.

"Uh, hi?"

"Hello Ms. Anima Nul. I hear you and Ruby Rose were trying to stop a robbery"

That was her name? I had heard it used before by Qrow and over the Signal intercom, and sometimes by the students but it's weird I haven't seen her there, then again I'm two years ahead of her.

"Yes"

"Don't be so formal, we're all friends here"

"Ok, yeah we did, the perp was Roman Torchwick, he didn't get a chance to leave with the dust he was trying to steal though"

"And good work on that, says you both went to, and in Ms. Rose's case, still going to, Signal"

"You went to Signal? But I've never seen you around"

"Yeah"

"And what are you doing with a HCSS Ms. Rose?"

"I uh...made it, all Signal students must forge their own weapon"

...She made it? One of the deadliest types of weapons in existence, and she made it? Somehow I find myself not that surprised.

"And who trained you? You're moves were quite impressive"

"My uncle Qrow taught me"

Qrow is her uncle? And the plot thickens…

"I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing, now I'm all like Howah Witcha"

No fucking way. Little Red Riding Hood is making karate poses at Ozpin, this is great.

"I've noticed, tell me, do you know who I am?" He sits down his mug, a bit dramatic in my eyes but ok.

"You're Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy"

"Indeed I am"

Red knew that and still did all that karate shit...wow.

"And why is an adorable girl like yourself learning to fight monsters?"

"Because I want to be able to protect people. After my two years at Signal are up I plan on applying to Beacon! You see, my sister's starting there this year, and she's trying to become a Huntress, and I'm trying to become a Huntress 'cause I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help others, so I thought, Hey, I might as well make a career out of it!" And she interrupts herself with a giggle...this is going to get more weird… "I mean the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and cool and really,gosh, you know!"

Holy shit, she said all that so fast I don't think even Ozpin could hear it...and once again she did it in front of the headmaster, knowing he's the headmaster...When she gets to school I'll be glad I won't have to bunk near her.

"Would you like to come to my school early?"

My jaw dropped, as did hers. I can't believe what I'm hearing.

"More than anything"

Don't you dare!

"Well ok"

In response to this I simply roll my eyes as the girl in red gives a victory shriek.

(Hello, I plan on replacing One of the RWBY team members with Anima, who should it be? VOTE NOW. If I don't get a vote at all Weiss dies)


	3. Personal Secret

(Authors note: Writing Lingo. If you see a line of ~~~~~~~~~Those, that indicates a time shift. A / Is the start of a flashback, and \ is the end of it. On rare occasion I may switch POV. This will be indicated by a simple (POV SWITCH) Followed by the character's name. Also Once I get home from school tomorrow the voting for who will be making space for Anima is over, and I'll begin writing either a dramatic death scene or simply brush off their existance. Enjoy the chapter - _Colonel_Creeper)_

Outside a large wooden house, in the outskirts of Vale, located a little bit to the south of the kingdom, a certain faunus was getting her stuff ready for Beacon. Me.

"Shit shit shit! Acuno!"

"Meow?"

"What the hell did you do with Grimsever?!"

"Meow?"

Here I am, packing everything in my nice, quiet, peaceful fucking cabin for beacon, save the furniture, and my god damned cat lost my knife.

"Find that knife or I'll eat you!"

The cat in question, an Aegean cat with a white body and brown and black stripes along the back, head and ears, took off like a fucking thunderbolt. Good, better get it's ass in gear. Well while he's gone, better go get my combat gear on. I move quickly to my bedroom, and start stripping out of my clothes, reaching into the closet and looking around for my armor. There's the leather greaves, gauntlets with the steel plates on the back of the fingers to alter how much damage my punches deliver...chest piece with the dust vial storage pouches...almost all of it, where's my hood? There it is!

After several minutes I'm finally dressed in my leather attire, The greaves have small squares of metal, painted the same brown as the leather they are sewn onto and about two centimeters of distance between each one. My boots are steel toed so my kicks will be able to provide some damage without aura enhancement, same reason my gauntlets have the same small metal squares from my greaves on the backs of my fingers and hand. Also to ignite dust with some sparks if my aura is out. The rest of my armor lacks metal on it, but does channel my aura well, so I can still take a hit. The chest piece has a bunch of sewn on pockets the size of dust vials. There's room for up to eighteen vials, with the pockets being split into nine on each side if you cut the chest piece vertically, and are in rows of three, with each row on top of the other. There is a belt that goes with my outfit to store up to six dust crystals on it. My hood just simply covers my head. Nothing major about it. Also to hide my identity should I have to put that mask on…

/

A much younger version of Anima is kneeling next to an altar, wearing a monk outfit. Her faunus features are still exposed.

"Mama, I'm not sure I understand this"

An older lady, a human with white hair and yellow eyes, rubs her head.

"You know your father is much better at explaining the paths of aura paradigms than me"

"Yeah, but his fangs are kinda scary" This elicits a small chuckle from her mom.

"Fine. There are three paths which aura can take to maximize it's true potential, four if you are a faunus. The path of light allows a soul's aura to take on a defensive role, boosting resistance to dust, and being able to be communed to others to increase their overall shielding. It can also actually form a solid shield within your hand. To manifest it all you have to do is hold your hand towards the sun, or use some aura to create a mini sun in your palm. Darkness focuses on things like disappearing, illusions, and manipulation of the senses. To manifest it you move your aura into your shadow and bend it around yourself. The path of Grimm, sometimes inaccurately referred to as the soul-less path focuses on the power and defense of the grimm. It is a solo based path, and allows you to manifest it differently from the rest. You use your aura to form a mask identical to a type of grimm over your face. It is usually followed with other parts of the chosen grimm coming into existence along your body. Nevermore masks give you wings, beowolf masks cause the spikes along their spine to appear on you, though much shorter. Ursa masks add claws which cover your fingers, and both boarbatusk and deathstalker masks add bone armor along your body's more vital areas. Boarbatusks also cover other uncritical areas as well. You also receive bonuses of that creature. You have to have killed a grimm and absorbed a bit of it's aura, which is the mist that evaporates off it in the beginning stages of it's decay. This is very dangerous and difficult when done alone. The fourth path only faunus can go down is the path of the beast. It can only be the beast which you were born as, in you and your father's case you would become more wolf like, increasing agility and speed to higher levels than most hunters, save those with a speed semblance. You just have to touch your inner beast with your aura to activate it, and you take on more semblance to the animal side, sprouting fur made of your aura, or armor or scales depending on your animal, which disappear when you end the beast mode like the grimm features do when you remove your mask. You can only choose one path, and it does not affect morals like some think. Did you know one of the greatest hunters of Atlas, back when it was being first built, was under the grimm path? And some villains have chosen the light path before, but some people may shun you if you wear a grimm mask, so if you do choose that path dear, you may want to hide that"

"Thanks mom, and I'm still deciding on a path. Mom, why do others not choose a path?"

"A great majority of people were already skeptical when these paths were first revealed. They weren't very widespread in popularity either. They have more or less just died out over the years"

Aww, mom's got that sad look on her face…

\

So I chose the path of the grimm. Comes in handy a lot. Person who can manipulate powdered dust like a dust crystal and alter her own form at the cost of dawning a grimm mask, and already has faunus strength and agility, and endurance and hearing and smell and night vision. As long as I never need to use the mask I'll be completely normal in the eyes of others, so here's to hoping...


	4. White Castle Shooting

"RUBY?!"

Oh god, someone knows her...Also, this view is fucking incredible. Here I am, on my way to Beacon! It would be wonderful save for one fact. My sense of smell can detect traces of vomit on that blond guy, so either he is about to or already has vomited. Either way it's going to be a terribly smelly ride.

"YANG!"

I hear two bodies smack together and I turn around to see a person with extremely long, quite messy towards the end, golden hair, and lilac eyes. Her outfit was comprised of a tan vest with a yellow undershirt. The vest has two puffy cap sleeves which end in black cuffs. She also had a brown belt with black shorts which fan out into a pleated skirt in the back. She wears a yellow scarf and brown platform boots, and has black fingerless gloves under these yellow circlets, but I don't see a weapon, maybe the circlets enhance aura?

"I can't believe my star sister is going to Beacon! You almost defeated one of the worst criminal scum bags to hit Vale in one go, you're like a superstar, and your here early that just proves you're awesome"

This...this over loving sister just continues to rattle off comments. My god. I thought my wolf ears would start bleeding. Thank god everyone has some cool type of weapon, cause that distracted the spas quite well. I heft my knife out of it's sheathe and start inspecting it while the blond, Yang I guess, has to keep ruby from jumping on everyone's weapons and, If I had to guess, field strip and reassemble them.

"So" I finally say to the blond, who looks at me with a bit of surprise, as if she didn't notice me at first. "How do you two know each other?"

"Ruby here is my little sis!"

Called it.

"Yang let go"

"Only if you promise not to mess with the students till w-"

"UUGGGHGHHHGHG!"

"Jesus that blond just exploded, I would stay away from the exit door until we arrive"

"Thanks" They both say.

Yang takes a quick look to her right, then whispers to me, "Hey, can you watch over Ruby for a minute?"

"Sure?" Can't hurt, she seems ok, despite the energetic and sudden actions when she sees something cool. Within a moment, Yang yells by to Ruby, who looks slightly confused, then whistles at a group of boys and girls, and I shit you not, she dives into them and they seem to move off into the bowels of the airship.

"Well, Just you and me huh Ruby?"

"Do you have a cool weapon?"

"I have a knife which has an opening in the handle for vials of dust, which I'm quite good at using"

"I noticed yesterday" She smiles at me, obviously looking nervous, so I take out my knife, Grimsever, which looks like a military combat knife, but a bit larger, and hand it to her. I can't even describe in words ow efficiently she had stripped it apart, only to see my shocked expression, and recombine the parts to fix it. I just stared blankly for a minute, first at what had just happened, and then at Beacon. We were almost there... almost at my new home. A pang of nervousness hit my conscience, but I quickly shove it aside. Just then the Vale News Network (VNN) appeared on the monitor by the central window.

"This afternoon tragedy struck at White Castle, as Weiss Schnee prepared to give another concert performance. Her first performance had been a surprise one, and gathered a large crowd already, so they had another to allow everyone else to hear her" I remember, I was there at the first, I may have been spying on her after hearing she might come to Beacon, wanted to know if she was as bad a racist as her family, so far only stuff about the white fang seems to be off putting to her regarding the faunus. Either way I got into it for free, and her singing voice was quite good.

"Reports say that during the middle of her performance a sniper for the white fang had been stopped from shooting her by her bodyguards, but a second shooter in the back row had been carrying a pistol, probably meant to help the sniper escape once things got ugly. The white fang member managed to get a lucky shot off on the heiress with an augmented shot, using a white dust clip to add stopping power. The bullet pierced and broke her left leg. After the incident had settled down some her father made the announcement that she would not be able to attend Beacon this year, though if her leg is healed up by next year she will be joining fellow students at the academy. In other news a robbery led by-"

The monitor shimmered and Glynda Goodwitch appeared.

"Hello new students, I am Glynda Goodwitch and I am here to welcome you to Beacon. You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy! Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world" The hologram flickers out.

"Woah…" Both me and Ruby say as suddenly we are looking out over this huge body of water with Beacon at the end of it.

"Ruby...Pinch me, I think I'm dreaming...OW! Not dreaming…"

Out we go into Beacon, I had to retrieve a luggage cart to carry the three brief cases I brought, two of dust vials, and one of crystals. Ruby had that compact scythe, but I can't see where she is hiding it. On our way there we meet Yang, as her friends and her drive on by, in some kind of eager storm. On our way I took a huge sniff of the air to get some sense of direction and familiarize myself with them. To my surprise a familiar smell tingled my nose and I turned around, coming face to face with a cat faunus.

(So, obviously Weiss was voted out, sadly not with the death scene I had planned out... Also in reply to The guest review, The reason we, or at least why I, forgave Weiss is because she hates the white fang due to murders on her family, and Sun because, well let's face it, when he came along he was a stowaway and a thief to introduce him, so yeah, he does seem like a rapscallion and riffraff. Also she did accept Blake back after she states she isn't in the white fang anymore. Sure ever so rarely, mainly seen in Blake and Weiss' debates, Weiss gets heated and suddenly she is after both the white fang and doesn't bother to correct herself when she mentions the faunus as a whole. To top it off we hate Cardin because he literally has no reason known behind his faunus hatred, and is therefore unjustified in any small way for his racism. Sorry this took a paragraph to type out, but there it is. Comment and favorite if you will.)


	5. Murderers and Trains

(POV CHANGE:3RD : VALE STREETS PS: DEATH AND GORE, SKIP TO Anima IF YOU DON'T WISH TO READ IT)

One week ago...

Looking down the figure saw his scroll in his hands, held by his yellow gloves. His target was just ahead. Stalking down the alleyway, the malice from this individual hanging in the air with enough evil intent to draw in grimm from every corner of the world, were his aura not binding it into him. Up ahead a fourth year student at the world renown hunting school that was Beacon is enjoying his day, hanging out with his team, leaned against the walls, cracking jokes between them other two guys and one girl. They were still in their school uniform and their weapons were next to them. Two Halberds, a spear, and a greataxe. The figure snapped his semblance into existence and flared his aura to the fullest, yet limiting it's presence through pure instinct so only the four can notice it. They turn to face the sudden source of evil energy, and cold chills creep up their spine. They grab their weapons and stand firm despite the fact this figure could now smell their fear, and they knew it. The figure was quite small and had shaggy hair, but his aura blocked every color from view. Physically manifesting around him is a swirling vortex of pure evil, occasional steam rising off of it in a red mist, which reeks of death. One of the people curl their nose, being able to smell from this distance means that one is a faunus. The voice spoke after stopping seven feet from the leader and staring for a few seconds.

"You are now the prey" The voice spoke with the voice of an old man, a young kid, a middle aged man, and a teenager at the same time, furthering their fears.

"You will know where I am and I will know where you are" If you can last one hour you can keep living. If you call for backup I will slaughter you and your families. Now, Mors is hungry. Get running" At the mention of Mors the figure rubs the hilt of a sword in it's sheath, and the figures take off as far as they can. After ten minutes three of them hear a scream. Then after another there is a second scream, cut short. Then only the girl and one man remains. They stand waiting with their backs on the wall behind them as the murderous stranger approaches.

"Is this the end of the line then?"

The girl pulls her halberd out from behind her, a small barrel at the end allows her to fire a bullet, but the recoil makes her smash into and leave a print into the wall, while the entity shot at simply brushes it away.

"IMPOSSIBLE! THAT ROUND WAS DESIGNED TO PIERCE BOTH AURA AND ARMOR!"

"Too bad. Reap, Crocea Mors" The figure slowly draws his sword until just the tip is in the sheath, then pulls it out and swipes in the air from a vertical from his left to his bottom right, holding the blade there. The walls and ground between him and the victims crack, break, and as they get closer to the two the major damage has been limited to blade marks deep into the ground. The girl raises her hand to her cheek to discover it's bleeding some, despite her aura being perfectly intact. The figure sheathes his sword and walks towards them, both now visibly shaking. "Once more, shall we? Reap, Crocea Mors" Once again he draws and slices, now much closer to the pair, and the ground and wall behind them are cracked and slashed into, the two themselves become mutilated corpses, and the figure re sheathes it's sword, then turns and leaves.

(POV: Anima Nul : One month ago. Location, Forever Fall)

I raise my hand to to the top of my head and let my aura manifest. Right now I'm here in Forever Fall, where the trees are covered in red leaves which constantly fall and sprout again, keeping the ground blanketed. Oddly enough if any were to leave the area they would vanish, and the winds keep the leaves sweeping out of the area every now and then, keeping the leaves from covering everything. My light blue aura manifests in my hand, and I drag it down slowly, a grimm mask slowly forming behind my hand, and my aura turns into a pure gray color.

"Shadow of the hunt, guide my way" I know I only need to cite the phrase upon my first transformation, but I find comfort in using it. In a moment the mask is fully covering my face, the orange orbs becoming my eyes. My skin and my aura infused armor turn black, and my fingers turn into claws, while three small spikes jut out an inch from my spine. Since the armor I'm wearing is heavily infused with my aura the spikes don't penetrate it but merely phase through. My senses quickly heighten, instilled with the mind of the grimm I chose, the Beowolf. My smelling and hearing now have twice the range, my speed and agility have increased, and my mind is filled with the knowledge of the creature. Every miniscule detail I see tells me something. Slight movement of the branches on the trees tell me of squirrels on them, the leaves' positions and the tracks on them. The way the wind rustles the leaves and the small chirps of birds answer. I am the embodiment of the hunting grimm. This is why I chose this path, to witness how the other half lives and thinks, without trying to teach a grimm to talk, cause lets face it, that isn't happening. A quick sniff of the air reveals two faunus nearby, I can smell the bull and cat mixed in with the natural human scent. Since I'm out of the range of normal faunus detection I search the beowolf mind for any useful tricks. Despite common belief grimm have slight slivers of souls. This was removed from the record to make hunters feel slightly easier about killing them. The aura generated from their souls is quite miniscule compared to ours, and can only be used for certain things. A beowolf makes use of their aura by setting parts of it aside to conceal their scent, a technique only they have, developed specifically to target faunus, since they can already be quite stealthy and hard to hear, until it's too late. Dashing over and slowing as I approached, I stopped ten feet behind a bull faunus, and made sure there was a tree between us. Taking a slight look from behind the tree I can see his backside, then memorize the details. Red hair, and a black, I think trench coat, the sleeves are slit, and the back at least, is riddled with red symbols, all of them linking up. In front of him was this cat faunus, wearing a black bow to hide her ears. She was looking up at the moon, so I got to see her full outfit. Light olive skin, wavy black hair, due to the shadow next to her it's probably very long. Her eyes are amber in color, almost like mine, but duller. She wears light purple eyeshadow with a backward flare to compliment them. Her eyes are slightly upturned, adding to her cat traits. She has a black buttoned vest with coat tails and a white sleeveless undershirt that exposes her lower belly. Next a pair of white shorts. She wears black low-heeled boots and stockings that start off black at her hips, but gradually fade to purple as they near her shoes. On both of her arms are these decorative black ribbons. Her left arm has a detached black sleeve and a silver band on it. As the train draws closer they take up positions on the cliff line, and I hide behind the rock. I peek over to watch them jump short ways, then I move to the edge and take a look. Both of them are now sliding down the cliff, kicking up all the leaves deposited there. I jumped after them, and they disappeared onto the train, with me landing a few cars behind. Why am I following them? Well that's simple, I wanna have some fun.


	6. Break Away

Quickly and efficiently I cross the cars, heading towards them. I got a faint glimpse of The bull cutting a hatch as I landed, and by the time I catch up there was several sounds of slicing and gunfire. Taking a look in, I was quite astonished. The bull faunus was wearing a white fang mask and a trench coat, which I could easily see now, and it had another red symbol next to the left shoulder. His weapon was a sword and sheath combo, he was constantly sheathing and slicing outwards at his enemies, delivering quick blows. During the times he wasn't using such attacks and just slicing away at them, the sheath became a rifle, delivering lethal shots to his enemies, a bunch of Atlesian Knight androids. The cat chick was quite scary. She had a sheath sharp as hell, and she was using it like an oversized cleaver. After a few more droids enter she pulls out the handle, which was attached to what appears to be a katana, except the blade has no curve, and towards the top a small spike sticks out from the spine of the blade. Now there's a small rectangular hole in her sheath towards the edge of the blade, which she grabs ahold of, and starts wielding both the cleaver like sheath and the katana, slicing apart all of the droids that come at her. Flying body parts of the androids start flying and one of them hits my mask, so I toss it off the train, and keep watching. The grace in which the cat moves, and the force behind the bull's attacks make quite the odd pairing, and after several minutes I smile and crawl down into the car, keeping on the ceiling with my claws embedded into the metal to anchor me to it so I won't fall and be discovered. The cat girl's katana converts into a gun resembling a glock, with a blade coming downward from the barrel, which really blew my mind. She quickly, and in a way that seemed very repeated to make it go as efficiently as possible, ties her ribbon on her right arm around the trigger, then uses it to fire the gun, which produced a heavy shot at a charging knight, then flew behind her. Guided by the recoil of each fire she swings the weapon around and it slices into them, removing arms, legs, and a head in one instance. As I started looking around to move around on the ceiling, and I spy a sight which actually made me retreat topside. Unknown to them, in the back of the car is a spider droid, a very deadly machine with beyond lethal firepower. Especially that charge shot, it's a chaos maker. It has four spider like legs, a human torso in the middle, and has four cannons. Two in place of arms that have rapid fire and moderate damage, while the two that are mounted on the shoulders fire slow charging, but powerful shots.

"Blake, move up to the next car, I'll set the charges" Charges? Oh shit.

"But what about the crew?" I guess the faunus girl is Blake. And it doesn't look like she agrees with this turn of events...

"What about them?"

And then tragedy struck for them, a miracle for the crew though. The spider droid climbs down from the ceiling and delivers a volley from it's four guns. The shots make them dodge away from the blasts and take cover. Blake tries to slash up it's legs, and it kicks her aside. The bull faunus moves up and distracts it, then dashes back as Blake jumps into the air and tries to cut into it's head. To counter her it headbutts her and she falls to the ground. In a flash the bull dashes to her side and pulls her away as it stomps where she just was, then the cannons extend forward and form a singular cannon, which starts charging.

"MOVE!" Yells the bull, and they sprint towards the exit, and emerge onto a car that is nothing more than a trailer, no walls or ceiling. Atlesian knights move towards them, and they begin to deal with them, while the spider droid cancels it's shot and shoots the wall between them with the other cannons to weaken the wall. In almost a minute the small force of knights has been dealt with. So I smile and walk onto the car, gaining their attention.

"Adam, is that a grimm?"

"I think so…"

"Hi"

they visibly flinch, so I state bluntly, "You guys have about five seconds before the spider comes back, also I can't let you destroy the train until the crew, both humans and faunus, get off of it"

"See Adam? there are faunus workers"

"Probably slaves, we'll be sparing them"

"Adam!"

"I agree with Blake there"

"H-" The sound of crunching steel and scraping metal cuts her off as the droid smashes through the wall, and I just casually climb back up the car and crouch at the top of it. The droid then opens fire on them, which makes them scatter again. While on top of the car I use my aura to draw a new pattern on my mask.

"Dark Winged hunter, guide my flight" As my body changes, losing the spikes and claws, and replacing the spinal area with a set of wings, my mask grows a small bird beak. Everything else remains the same and I circle them, observing the fight. Sadly my senses returned to normal faunus mode, and my brain no longer had the smell blocking ability, but I smelt like a grimm anyways, so no worries. As I turn my attention back to them I hear Adam yell out "Buy me some time!" And Blake springs into action, shooting and slicing at the droid to keep it occupied. After a minute of this it goes to charge up it's charge attack and Adam yells again "Blake, pull back!" and Blake moves to the car behind Adam. The droid fires it's shot and Adam blocks with his sword, pulling it out from the sheath halfway and it draws in the blast, then he grows red, and so does his mask and symbols on his back. I must admit this was a new thing for me, and scared the shit out of me, so I flew back some. After a quick second he draws his blade and slices horizontally, the energy from the charging shot being released and amplified, and it sliced the droid in half, as well as disintegrated the damn thing, and made leaves from the trees scatter into the air like rose petals. As for me I was in the air, and found my world disoriented for awhile. When I recovered and watched them something shocking happened. Blake was standing on one train car, about to decouple it and leave Adam behind, or so it looked, the way she held her cleaver.

"Adam, I can't do this anymore"

"Blake"

"Goodbye"

"Traitor!"

Blake swings and decouples the car, and Adam takes off and jumps at her, sword raised to strike her down. Good thing I was in nevermore form, and so from the side I scattered razor sharp feathers into him, stabbing into his clothing and making him be pinned to a tree they were passing. I land over by Blake and she takes a defensive stance.

"Chill out kitty cat"

"How did you-"

"Beowolf sense of smell plus natural faunus sense of smell. I could smell the feline on you and the bull on him"

"And you know my name how?"

"I've been following you since you boarded the train. Kinda sad I missed the start of the fight, you put on quite a show when I got there"

She continues eyeing me down.

"So, what's next for Blake huh?"

"What do you mean?" She moves both blades to strike if necessary.

"You basically just resigned from the white fang, so what's next?"

"..." What I think was a look of recognition crossed her face, and she looked very, very, worried.

"What's wrong kitty?"

"No one who has ever dared to leave the new white fang has been hunted down and killed…"

So, I sighed. I do have a conscious… So I have to help her...Jesus sometimes I hate myself.

"Wanna tag along until you feel safe enough to go out on your own?"

"What?"

"You heard me, but You have quite the secret to keep" A smile creeps under my mask.

"I don't think living with grimm is safe, or moral"

"Therein lies the secret dear" I sounded a lot more creepy than I wanted to, but I was having fun.

"I'm not a grimm"

"Then what are you?"

"I'll tell you if you keep it hush hush"

"...Ok"

With a wave of my hand the gray aura manifested itself, and I start to move it in a way as if I was taking off my mask from the bottom, a reverse of how I manifested it, and it strips off, my aura turning to it's natural light blue once it is halfway gone, and the shadows vanish, revealing my armor and face to her.

"Name's Anima Nul" I extend my hand to her, and she flinches a bit.

After about two minutes of her waiting, probably thinking, and wondering exactly what the hell she would be getting into, she finally talks.

"What's to lose...Blake Belladonna" She shakes my hand and I smile.

"So, how'd you do the grimm thing?"

"I'll reveal that information in time"

"I didn't think it would be that easy"

"Bet?"

"What kind of bet?"

"I'm enrolling in Beacon in one month. If you make it in I'll tell you"

"Deal"


	7. Answering A Question

(Present Day:Beacon Academy, Anima POV)

"You actually made it in huh?" I hold up my hand and the faunus girl, Blake Belladonna, high fives me. I remember how cautious she was when we first met, but we've became good friends in a month's time. Sadly she still hides her cat ears, which I think were quite adorable.

"I think I won that bet"

"Later, it's a secret remember"

"Fine" Blake rolls her eyes while wearing a playful smile.

"Umm, you two know each other?"

"Yep, this is Blake Belladonna, resident ninja and very scary when pissed"

"Ninja, yes, but I don't bite"

After a few seconds both the cat and I start to laugh quietly at the inside joke, while Ruby just looks confused. Blake and I started talking about of past few days since we were out of contact for a while. She had been honing her skills and studying to pass the Beacon entry exam, which was starting tomorrow. After our brief chat, including talks about the Schnee company, talks of my robbery foiling, and the gruesome murders which have occurred once each week, we headed into the academy at the sound of Glynda calling all first years into the auditorium.

"Hey Ruby I saved you a spot!" Yang yells out.

"Uh, gotta go, see you guys" She vanishes into rose petals, and reappears by her sister. I think that took almost a whole second for her to travel through the crowd...not pissing off the godspeed reaper.

"So, watch from the rafters?"

"Sure" Blake says and disappears, leaving behind a hardlight copy to take her place, while I just climbed up to her. We sat overlooking the event from a metal bar parallel to the stage, which Ozpin ascended.

"I'll... keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step"

"He seems distant" Blake notes.

"Agreed, he was not this spaced out two days ago"

"Wonder what happened"

"Get that book I sent you?" I say to change the flow of the conversation, and I chuckle a little as Blake's cheeks turn red.

"Y-yeah…"

"Did you like it?"

"Wasn't exactly what I was expecting, but it's good"

I smile and nudge her arm. "Looks like the second in command has some words to say"

Glynda takes Ozpin's place. " You will gather in the ballroom tonight, tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed"

I whisper quietly and slyly to Blake "Wanna just sleep up here? We can read that book"

"B bu but it has-" Her face lights up so fast, so terribly, so I simply pull her over on my lap.

"I know what's in the book, I read it before I sent it. Wanna read it or not?"

Checkmate, I believe "S sure"

So, for the next couple of hours until they pass out Anima lays on the taller girl while they read the book Ninjas Of Love. I didn't read, knowing the feelings that book inspires, but Blake did, thinking I was reading. I could feel her shift her weight a few times, a bit nervously. Luckily for us our stuff was placed in lockers but Blake for some odd reason, I smile deviously, had this book on hand.

I woke up right after the most wonderful dream, which not even my inner thoughts get to know. Blake was still sleeping and had one arm wrapped around me so I wouldn't accidentally fall. Since I can't really get up without waking her I use some ice dust to create a slide down and rolls off onto it, pulling her with me. As we are about halfway down I hear "WHAT THE HELL?!" And then some light laughter as we hit a pile of snow I made at the end of this with some of the dust that was once forming the ice at the top of the slide.

"Morning, you can let go now"

"Oh uh...ok" She lets me go, and I stretch and get off her, then extend a hand and she takes it, so I pull her up.

"So, get a new reason to come to Beacon yet?"

"Yeah, I figure if I graduate and everyone respects me I'll be able to reveal my faunus nature, and deal with the consequences, and with hunter authority I'll be able to help make a change to this world for the betterment of faunus kind"

"Aww that's so sweet, making my life better" I smile and pat her head after a quick glance for any watchers, and she kicks me in the shin after a light hearted purring sound comes from her. I can't tell if it was worth it or not because I stumbled over a piece of the slide and smacked the back of my head on the ground while I was hopping around on one leg.

"Ow!"

"Serves you right!"

"Why?"

Blake strides over and, with strength I didn't know she possessed, pulled me up on my feet by my hood and whispered, "don't touch my ears when someone might be nearby"

"Ok ok" I get up and pat her shoulder, then turn around and hold my hand down at my side, subtly dropping the hint for her to take it, while at the same time making it seem like I was just letting my arm hang down. She didn't take it...damn. Anyways, we walked to the cliffside instead of the locker room since Blake had her weapon on a magnetic strip of metal on her back, while I kept my knife sheathed in a small slot on the right thigh of my armor. I fight with my right hand regardless of being left handed, instead focusing my dust with my left hand, which combined with my wonderful constant manipulation semblance, allows powdered dust to become flexible like using a crystal until the energy produced by the activation dies out, a skill which is quite handy when using things like ice magic as I can split ice spikes out from larger ice, which uses the ice from the larger structure, moving it in constant flow.

Once at the cliffs we both can see that there are launc plates bearing the symbol of Vale. Two axes cross themselves surrounded by a circle, with olive branch like symbols at the base of the axes which progress up to the halfway mark of the blades.

We were there early I guess, since no one was around, and I went into beowolf form for a moment to confirm that everyone was still far off, so Blake asked the question.

"How do you do that?"

I sigh internally, but tell her anyways. "There are three paradigms of aura, a fourth is available for faunus. They are the light, the dark, the grimm, and the beast. The light uses a power from the sun to allow aura to be shared from the light user to others, as protection or to add to their attack powers. They can illuminate dark areas and are primarily a support role in groups" Blake seems to be waiting for me to go on, so I do. "Dark users are solo or shadow like hit and run tactic fighters. Speed, vanishing acts, and illusions are what their aura is imbued with upon activation. Grimm, which is the path I chose, allows you to consume aura from fallen grimm, which is briefly available at the moment of their death, so you have to fight them close and be quick about it. So far I have the beowolf, ursa, and nevermore forms, but in theory you can gain forms of all grimm. You use your aura to manifest a mask to conceal you in their shadows, and their mind can be accessed by yours' allowing their senses and knowledge to be used by you, but it only includes hunting and natural instincts. The final one is the beast path, in which a faunus uses their aura to tap further into their animal counterpart, the effects vary by faunus. You would probably gain a swift boost to your speed and much better nightvision, as well as claws that could shred metal. Probably a reflex speed increase too. You may only commit to one paradigm. I don't expect you to make a snap decision, so think on it"

As I look back at Blake it seems the information was actually sinking in quite well, I could tell because that confused look she had a few seconds after I started was giving way to understanding.

"I will"

Taking a quick sniff of the air my beowolf senses detected Ozpin and Goodwitch on their way, along with the students, so I quickly peel off the mask and stand up with Blake as we wait for them to get here.

(In my story Blake is a little more open to people who know her secret and are her friends, given why her and Anima are friendly towards each other, even if she never notices Anima's intent behind some of the things she does)


	8. An earlier reveal than I'd like

The students and teachers arrive, a bit surprised we beat them here, a bit more surprised that I'm currently in the process of rigging my launch pad so I can go ahead and get fired off into the forest.

Ozpin clears his throat as he gets behind me, and I continue working.

"Don't mind me boss"

He sighs and stands at the edge then turns to face us. "Prepare for your initiation. You will be launched into the forest, where you will use your own landing strategy to land safely, and proceed to a temple ruin in the forest to retrieve a relic"

Goodwitch then starts talking "To put the rumors of teams at ease, you will be assigned you teams, **today**. The **first** person you lock eyes with will be your partner for the **rest of your stay at Beacon** "

Here's to praying I see Blake...or maybe that crazy red riding reaper. heh, red riding reaper, that's a good one.

Everyone starts getting launched, one by one. I was fired fourth, despite being the last in line, since my jury rigging worked. As I look back Ozpin has a smile on his face and Glynda just frowns. Anyways…

"WOOHOO!" Behind me I hear an explosion, or five. Sailing past me is Yang, and some girl with a giant hammer. The hammer girl is wearing a pink dress, or skirt. Hard to tell when falling. I use some ice dust to make some snow, then dash off into the forest a few yards and stop. Why? Not sure. In the distance I hear "Thanks!" From that vomit guy, and it's followed by an "I'm sorry" Interesting, I suppose. Shaking the thoughts from my head I start walking, and get nearly tackled by a red figure leaving a large trail of rose petals behind her. She was followed by a pack of beowolves, so I froze two of them and used Grimsever to slice their necks. Surely death herself can deal with four beowolves. Continuing on I found Blake, though not pleasantly. An ursa leaped out of the shadows of a tree and swung it's paw at me, so I jumped over it and rolled over to another bush and turned to face my attacker, and I take a grey dust vial, my own creation, and push it into the handle of Grimsever. I was ready, I can take him, then I found myself pressed down by a beowolf that leapt on me. It was an older one, so it could use the smell suppression, and now I'm stuck. Emerging from behind the ursa was Blake, who sliced off one arm of it with the sheath cleaver, and fired a blast from her pistol into the beowolf's head and it rolls away to avoid more shots. I jump up and hold the blade horizontally as some dust moves into the blade, then I charge at it and swing, a shockwave flies forward the size of the swing, while I use my semblance to keep some energy from it in the air and turn it into stabs which pierce the mask, killing it.

"Dear god that was close…"

"You ok Anima?"

"I'm fine, just fine...a bit freaked out, but other than that I'm ok"

"So next time trust more than your nose"

"Got it, to the temple?" An explosion accents when Blake nods, causing us both to look to our left, watching the forest burn as a blonde, Yang, decimates tons of grimm with explosives, and fire is radiating off her body.

"She got pissed…"

"From my guess it pissed her off by cutting her hair, see that small strand of gold kicked up from the blast?"

"Remind me not to ever touch her hair"

"Don't ever touch her hair"

We both exchanged nervous glances, then decide to head for the temple and not risk getting accidentally incinerated, slashing away at any and all grimm in our path. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a good time we are standing around a stone brick ruin with, chess pieces? Yep, chess pieces, on pedestals. Some relics huh?

"So...which one should we get?" Our thoughts are disrupted by Yang, riding a fucking Ursa, with that girl in pink riding one beside her. Next to them Ruby and some guy in a green outfit that seems chinese like in nature, and a pink stripe in his hair on the left side. The guy looks tired, but Ruby doesn't. Then out came a deathstalker (Scorpion Grimm) following a redhead dressed like a female greek warrior, and blonde boy was clinging to it's mask, trying to hold on. And three smaller ones came soon. So, hurriedly I grabbed a knight piece and ran, followed by everyone else after grabbing a piece. We screamed in fear, ran like fuck and eventually we somehow split up into groups. The deathstalker, the massive deathstalker that blonde boy was holding onto, was after us, while the others were pursued by the three much smaller ones. With me was Ruby, Blake, and Yang. Not liking our odds, because that wasn't the end of the deal. Barreling out of the woods was a group of several beowolves, then ursa. I mean really? Really? FUCKING REALLY?

"Anyone got a plan?" I make some fire and toss it behind me, hoping for the best. Didn't hear anything get hit sadly.

"I I might" Stammers Ruby. Kinda scared to do this but I ask what it is.

Now here we are, approaching a dead end as she explains the plan and the pieces, telling me and Yang to buy time, and she hurries ahead with Blake. When I turn around an ursa smacks me across the way and almost to the others, while Yang starts laying into them with explosives, despite having to dodge that deathstalker. Her punches send them flying, but more keep coming, so I do what I have to.

"Fuck…" I mumble as I bring my hand up to my head, looking as the brawler starts to get swarmed.

I bring down my hand, my aura swarming it so much it is a solid dark blue, and I suddenly have an ursa mask on. My aura shifts to grey, and the ursa's slight aura that it naturally has surrounds my hands, now covered in grim plates like armored gloves, with the fingers turned into claws again. Yang looks and sees my transformation, being stunned by the sight, curiosity and a hint of worry etched into her face. Then as the deathstalker prepares it's attack I dive and roll in front of the tail, grabbing it just before it kills her, and I struggle. It's hard to hold a deathstalker tail in place.

"Get up and move!" I roar, scaring back some of the grimm, and Yang complies and I push and roll, the tail flicking up, then stabbing into the ground, barely missing me due to my agility being weakened by this form. I stand up by Yang, who just stares at me again.

"I'll explain later, now we have to live! Get your head in the game!" I punch a beowolf's paw to move it back so I am not hit, then stab the small claws that are my fingers into it's chest and leap back. Good thing too because the other beowolves pounced, and then Yang detonated them with one blast, a few charred remains flying up and disintegrating. Looking back I can see that the others have chipped away at the trees and have laid a trap to pin the deathstalker. Ruby looked at me with a look of terror, and I turned to see a beowolf about to kit Yang and I uppercut it into the air, then kick out at a charging ursa, hitting it's head, and I leap off as it hits a tree. I then rake it's sides until it is bleeding heavily and it dies soon after. Ruby looks slightly easier, and yells out. "We're ready, get the stalker over here!"

We led it over, me keeping it's focus while Yang cleaned out the smaller ones. Man this mask is the most annoying form I have, unless I get a boarbatusk or goliath. I like staying alive and dealing extra damage with more strength, but agility and speed are my passion. Eventually I switched masks into beowolf form and scratched the scorpion grimm as it turned it's back on me. Serves it right. It spun around and assaulted at me furiously, making it a lot easier to dodge, specially with the beowolf brain factoring in what it's next move is probably going to be. Once it's in place I dash to one side of trees and sprint forward, using one claw to slash and break them, while Ruby sprints down the other side without her semblance, also cutting the base of the trees and making them fall onto the scorpion and pin it in place. Then an idea clicked in my head, and I turn towards Yang and make my mask a nevermore, and I ran towards her, my wings behind me.

"Hey Yang! Send me up!"

"Sure!" When I arrived I jumped and she blasts the bottom of my greaves, sending me flying into the sky, I didn't use any aura so my leg currently felt like shit, and I dive bombed the pinned deathstalker, using feathers to weaken the mask before turning into ursa form and smashing through the weakened mask and it's head. A small flicker of grey kicked up from it and I sucked it into my hands, taking the deathstalker's aura. I jump out of it's head and dissolve my mask.

"What the fuck was that?" Yang looks a bit stunned, since these words came from a very curious and partially scared Ruby.

"It's a thing I can do with my aura, take on and manipulate a grimm's aura and form. I'll explain later, swear on my life"

Ruby agrees reluctantly and Yang starts lecturing her on swearing, so I move over to Blake.

"I've been thinking about the whole Paradigm thing…"

"You at least have to wait until tomorrow and I'll help you pick one"

"Ok, but I was going to say the path of the beast. I want to get to know my faunus side more"

"And if you still feel that way tomorrow I'll help you achieve it"

(Meanwhile on the cliff)

"What the hell was that Ozpin, is she a danger to the students?!"

"I don't believe so, she simply chose a road less traveled"

"What do you mean?"

"You remember the ancient rites to the aura paradigms?"

"Yes, I still refuse them"

"She chose a road less traveled. Don't reveal to her that we saw her transformation, she'll feel out of place, she did have some reluctance to dawn that power"

"Fine"

(Help me out if you can, I can't decide on a team name for a team consisting of Ruby Blake Yang and Anima. It will still have Ruby as the leader, so there's that. Please leave suggestions and I'll read them later, and If I like a suggestion more than the name I give them, which will be a placeholder for a while, It will be the official name)


	9. RYBN

After everyone had made it through initiation we had been gathered in the Beacon auditorium for team announcements, and it made me regret being a faunus, I could see it on Blake's face too no matter how well she hid it with that poker face of hers. The stench of sweat, fear, and other irritating smells assaulted my faunus sense of smell and my god, I don't think I've ever smelled something so absolutely bad before. The lights were dimmed except for the stage, where four individuals would be called up, then announced as a team, and the leader would also be announced.

"Cardin Winchester" I took one sniff as Ozpin called him forward, and I already don't like him.

"Russel Thrush" He looks a bit iffy, like he could be an asshole, or an unexpected good guy.

"Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark" The next two seem like they could be related, judging by the armor, maybe cousins? Either way, not important.

"The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL, led by... Cardin Winchester!" The excitement from his voice was practiced, guess he's done this a lot.

"Jaune Arc" So that's blondie's name.

"Lie Ren" Interesting name, that guy.

"Pyrrha Nikos" I knew the gladiator looked familiar. She's won multiple tournaments, graduated top of her class, and is a celebrity.

"Nora Valkyrie" So crazy ass hammer girl is a Valkyrie...That actually explains a lot.

" The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR, led by Jaune Arc!"

I can't quite hear what they are saying over the audience, and I,like most people, burst into laughter when Pyrrha accidentally knocks Jaune over. It was great.

"Ruby Rose" I have a bad feeling…

"Anima Nul" God help me.

"Blake Belladonna" She stands next to Ruby and is wearing her usual poker face.

"Yang Xiao Long" Well…

"The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces, and will be known as team RYBN (Reborn) with Ruby Rose as the leader!"

I simply look straight up to heaven, and glare. My thoughts of how hopeless of a team this will be with a childlike leader vanish as Yang and Ruby walk off and Blake taps my head, prompting me to come out of my trance and follow.

"I think we should unpack now" I state quite bluntly, and everyone but Yang, who looks actually tired, agrees. We instantly set to work, disturbing the sleep of our next door team JNPR, but I think Nora beat us to it. I can hear her snoring every time I pass the door, and these rooms are moderately sound proof. The end result was a fucked up room, beds piled in the middle, bookshelves on the wall as well as boy band posters, gross, Ruby slashes a curtain diagonally in half...wow… so we fixed the state of the room by making bunk beds, despite me saying I'm sleeping on the roof countless times, and out of laziness we left the curtain cut in half. After a quick rush of construction, a brief and racist interruption by Cardin, turning said Cardin into an ice sculpture and sliding him down the hallway, mother fucker talked shit bout my tail…, we finish our job. Ruby's bunk bed is hanging precariously from the ceiling with ropes tied to the posts with a sheet hanging in the air above the bed, also tied up by ropes so it hangs in a rectangular shape. Yang's bed is under hers, and she has one of those posters up on the wall next to her, six guys striking poses. I can't fucking believe she listens to boy bands, we are not going to get along. Blake takes the top bunk on our side of the room, and fills the bottom with books since she knows I enjoy sleeping outside, away from it all. I did place a shelf on the wall with several dust vials on it secured in place by glue on the bottom of each. Don't worry, it's no loss since the dust is fake. I don't really trust live dust out in the open since a pissed off Yang might detonate us all. I keep the real stuff in my weapon locker, and in a briefcase under my bed incase of emergency. I also have four hooks from which grimm masks of a beowolf, nevermore, ursa, and a deathstalker mask hang. My knife was hanging from the ceiling by a chain, well one knife. Grimsever was still in my sheath and some of my things were still arriving, mainly just my homemade dust and other weapons I use.

Before I slipped out of the window to go sleep on the roof Yang grabbed my arm.

"You still owe us an explanation"

Fuck… "Well, gather round, it's story time"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~One explanation later...I'm slipping out of the window after waving bye to Blake. Feeling like the higher up the better, I use my nevermore form to fly all the way up to Ozpin's tower and sleep on the flattest surface towards the top I can find.

I woke up to a tapping of a cane next to my head, quite loudly. I look up and notice that it's noon, and Ozpin is standing over me.

"You do realize your late for class?"

"Huh?"

"And your uniform is in your room. We had a hole cut into it for your tail to slip through"

"Wha?"

"And your first class is with Professor Peter Port"

"Who?"

Ozpin smacks his cane hard against the ground, and I jump up attentively.

"Sir yes sir!"

"Why are you out here anyway?"

"I like sleeping outside…"

"Well, please refrain from sleeping all the way up here. It's a long way down and I don't think you can make masks in your sleep"

A dawning of recognition happened as I let his words slip in. "Oh you saw that…"

"The path of the grimm is a path that encourages hiding due to misunderstanding"

"So, you know huh? What path do you follow?"

"I follow the path of the light, so that I can protect my students better"

"You must have picked your path when you were an adult"

"Maybe I did, or maybe I ran a school in my childhood years. What is my past isn't the concern though, the fact you overslept is"

Confusing and manipulative...I like him. "Well, bye then" I jump off and use part of a vial of ice dust to guide my fall to the ground, then I salvage what dust I can from the ice I created to refill the vial some, and move into the room and change.


	10. First classes

(Quick apology, I had not stated what dust Anima used in the initiation to create the shockwaves due to an accidental deletion of that sentence)

So, the Beacon school uniform is something I don't exactly like. A plaid skirt I can deal with. The white shirt, tan vest, and brown jacket, however, I am not. So I simply wear my armor. I see some people already wear their combat attire to class, some are even wearing their combat gear to my class. When I enter the classroom Professor Port was facing away from me and going on about some long winded story about him capturing a beowolf as a kid, so I sprint over as quietly as I can and take my place by Ruby. Port just kept on talking, and slowly moved towards us. Once he is standing right in front of me he looks me dead in the eye.

"Late on your first day?"

"Sorry about that, I was sleeping"

"Where would you be sleeping at that no one could find you? The roof?"

"Yep"

"...Well then, don't be late again" He continues his story and I look over to the cage in the floor that is rattling with the force of something inside it. At the end of Port's speech he says something that actually grabs my attention.

"The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

No one at all raises their hands. Not a single person. Wow.

"Well then, It looks like us professors are going to have to instill such qualities in you. Now, who would like to face their fears?"

"I would" I smile, knowing that by smell that is a type of grimm whose aura I have yet to claim.

"Then step forward and ready yourself!"

I walk to the front of the class and reach for my knife, keeping a grip on it. Port uses his weapon, a blunderbuss with axe blades on the top and bottom of the stock, and smashes off the lock to the cage.

"Woah!" A blur of armored plates and black skin hurls past me as a boarbatusk shoots out of the cage tucked into a roll. I turn and face it, still having my knife in it's sheath, grey dust, an Anima original creation, sliding out onto the blade, clinging to it.

"C'mon buddy" The pig grimm squeals at me and tucks back together in the rolling ball of death. I swing my blade out diagonally, spreading out the dust, then flick a small pebble sized collection of my aura into the bottom of the line to activate it, speeding the dust up and turning it into a shockwave that strikes the grimm, slowing it down some so I can step out of the way. Swapping my vials out for ice I smile at it and it charges me without rolling, intent on goring me on those sharp tusks. I stab towards the ground activating the ice dust, and it spikes up along it, impaling the grimm's soft underbelly. It wasn't a critical hit so it lived, and with the use of my semblance the ice in front of my blade vanished as new ice began forking out from the impaling spike, decimating the grimm's insides, skewering it's organs. In a quick motion I make the ice outside it vanish and it blossoms out from the back of the grimm into a flower of ice as I sheath my knife and cancel my semblance. I suck in it's glimmer of aura after killing it.

"Quite impressive Ms. Nul"

"Thank you professor" I smile and take my seat while the students look on at the ice flower that bloomed out of the grimm's insides.

"Wow how'd you do that?" Ruby looks at me, her silver eyes being a bit wider than usual after the spectacle of my fight.

"That's my uh, semblance" That look of admiration was a bit creepy… "It allows me to manipulate dust spells I make by using the residual energy from their initial activation to continue changing the form of it constantly"

"Cool! I vanish into rose petals and move extremely fast"

"That's also cool"

Well, so far I've went through two classes, one on grimm studies with Port, where I made a flower bloom, and dust practice, which I aced, and was then placed into advanced dust practice. I was also enrolled in flora classes., where they teach what plants are good, not going to kill you if consumed, and what has a chance of placing you in a coma, or eating you because unfortunately there can be plants that do that. I mean, getting eaten by a plant, that shit does not rate high on my to do list. But now, now I'm in a class I'll enjoy. My last class of the day, combat tactics.

"Hello class" Miss Goodwitch is our observer. Our class takes place in an open area, with both the fighter and their auras displayed on a screen so everyone can see just how badly someone is losing. I stretch some and had retrieved Grimsever's twin and it's sheath from our dorm before class. The twin's blade was solid black in contrast to Grimsever's silver blade. Whenever I wielded them I called Grimsever just Grim, and it's twin Sever.

"Today we will be practicing with our teams. Which ever team mate is left standing at the end of it all will be added to a final free for all. First team, JNPR"

It was a fun fight. Jaune was instantly out as he dodged a slice from that Pyrrha girl's spear, sword thing, just to get a concussion from a giant hammer, which detonated a grenade on his head when it made contact. That Valkyrie chick was scary, laughing and jumping around like a hyperactive ball of death, propelling herself with grenades from her hammer. Most of the time she was singing "I'm the queen of the castle" While Lie Ren was shooting at both of them, but his bullets weren't packing much force behind them due to their being fired from machine pistols, built to do sustained damage instead of pure power behind each shot. After some time of Nora and Pyrrha duking it out while being shot at by Ren Pyrrha charged him, and he smiled as a grenade from Nora's hammer lands behind her, shooting Pyrrha skyward, and as she landed on her back Ren delivered an aura charged kick to her cheek, and then was hit directly in the face by Nora's hammer, which converted into a six chamber grenade launcher and hit him with several more. Pyrrha, somehow still conscious was the last one who could stop Nora's reign. Getting up as she finished Ren off she changed her sword spear into a rifle and lined a shot up on her head. Nora twirled around in a pirouette when Pyrrha fired, which made the shot miss and it startled Nora who then blanketed Pyrrha in explosives. End result, Dorky leader, zero, Chinese ninja guy, zero, Battle hardened celebrity gladiator, zero, Insanity queen, one. Ruby and Yang were watching the battles with awe while Blake just sat there reading. Figures.

"Next, CRDL"

Those four take the stage, and since no matter how fun watching Cardin get his ass kicked is, the fight seems to be going his way, so I scoot over to Blake and read over her shoulder.

I'm guessing I passed out from boredom, because when they announced my team Blake rolled me off her and onto the floor, which hurt. Leaping up and looking around, I saw Goodwitch staring at me.

"Anima Nul, join your team down here"

I go down to where everyone else is and look at their weapons again. Ruby has crouched and her scythe's handle is poking the ground while the blade is pressed against her left arm, right arm extended behind her and she has her hand on the middle of it's shaft, waiting. Yang takes up a boxing pose, ready to beat the shit outta someone, and Blake separates Gambol Shroud, holding the sheath at the ready and the katana in pistol form. I take out both Grim and Sever, place grey dust into their handles, and hold them with my thumb on the bottom of the handle and the blades pointed down. I can't use my grimm mask here, so this will be a dust fueled war on my end.

"Fight" Holy shit…

Yang launches straight at me, and I barely dodge the strike. Ruby slices at Yang who jumps over the blade, but my attention is pulled from them by Blake, who fires a blast into my leg, then I dodge several more. The sting from that first shot was not pleasant. Getting close enough to strike out at her I'm met by the sheath cleaver nearly striking my face, so I leap back while swinging my knives, scattering the dust and activating it at the same time, sending two forceful shockwaves into Blake and knocking her down. Turning my attention from her in a quick glance, I see Ruby fly at me, and I duck under her, and slash at an incoming Yang, slowing her down and allowing me time to dodge. Yang seems hellbent on me now, so I spend my time spreading particles of my grey dust onto the ground while dodging the blonde. I catch a glimpse of what I can only describe as Baseball bat scythe meets cat girl baseball as Ruby bats Blake across the room and into the wall. Now I have both sisters after me and I can't even get close enough to the dust trap I've set to activate it. In a show of stupidity and bravery I charge the storm of fire in front of me, ducking under a punch from Yang and rolling away into the lines of dust I've set and I smile back at them, but of course now they are after each other. Bullets accentuate each punch of Yang's and rose petals follow Ruby's retreats from them, while bullets also accentuate her attacks, the recoil sending her scythe faster, making the blunt end a lethal bat. A few bullets of Ruby's scythe land near me, and one hits my shoulder and makes me roll over. During my wait I lay out more grey dust, which is occasionally kicked up by the gunfire. thank god it only reacts to direct aura pulses. Stealing a glance at the aura monitor on the screens I can see Blake is still in the fight, which worries me greatly. Where had the faunus gone to? I look up and find myself smiling as I can see Blake sitting on one of the steel beams crisscrossing the ceiling in the shadows. I'm guessing she knows I see her because she smiled down at me and held a finger to her lips. After what was a minute, but felt like a lifetime with how fast they were moving, Ruby was punched all the way over to my trap, with an eager Yang following. I stand up and smile while concentrating my aura into my hand.

"Hey girls, that's game"

They both look over at me and I trigger the grey dust surrounding us. At once flurries of shock waves collide into them from the dust, while I smile and manipulate some of the waves into spikes of energy to inflict greater damage into their limbs to deaden them, making Ruby drop her scythe, and Yang's arms to go numb. At the end of the show I gather the waves that haven't been launched and hit both of them with a widened blast, sending them backwards onto the ground and sending their aura levels into the red, ending the fight with them. In that moment I had forgotten about a certain cat faunus, who jumped down from the rafters and sliced my back with both blades, then entered a combo of attacks, my aura levels dropping at an alarming pace, but the strikes keep me from retaliating. I manage to roll out with my aura about to drop into the red, and I'm met with her sword tied to the ribbon on her arm flying at me like a buzzsaw and slicing across my face and arms until my aura is down, making me lose the fight.

"You sneaky intruder"

She laughs and winks at me, only us getting the joke about the train since no one else was there, and I hop up and go to the stands behind the protective glass to watch the final rumble. Blake once again disappears, leaving a clone behind to take a hit and she stays up in the rafters like before. Everyone was focused on someone else though...A body smacks into the window and cracks it, then another as the queen of madness hops around leaving so many explosions in her wake I started questioning the physics behind her weapon's ammo capacity. She was terrifying, only one person managed to hit her, and that person had his legs fractured with one smash attack from the Valkyrie. After she cleaned out the floors Blake descended upon her, and this also makes me question Nora, as she, without looking, swung her hammer up and fired, a grenade leaving the hammer head and exploding upon impact with Blake, then Nora jumps back and looks at her.

"The queen will never die~" Her weapon went back into grenade launcher form and unleashed hell. By the end of it Blake had been defeated, the glass was broken at some points, the ground was ruptured everywhere, and a massive hole had been opened in the roof, revealing the sky lit up with orange, so I'm going to guess the sun is setting.

"And the winner, _despite the odds_ , Is Nora Valkyrie!" The audience claps as she curtsies before the crowd.

(this chapter ended up a lot longer than I anticipated… Favorite and review if you enjoyed)


	11. All aboard!

The wonderful night air hits my skin again. Letting my tail swing back and forth I sit on the edge of my dorm window. I have absolutely no clue where Ruby and Yang are at right now, but I can tell Blake will be here soon, call it a hunch. Looking down I spot a flash of red having a fist fight sparring session with a blonde, neither of them using weapons, and only using aura for defense. Seems like they are turning the grounds into a wide open battle field. Behind me I hear the door creak open slowly and I can smell Blake's scent. Holding onto the window I hang back into the room, my ears touching the floor.

"Hey Blake"

"Puppy"

"I'll bite"

"Really?" She gives me a skeptical look and it is quite difficult not to reply with some smart comeback about leaving marks on her. I mean, I am a wolf and I am quite hungry, lunch was a little lighter than I'm used to.

"So, what's up kitty cat?" I say after she closes the door.

"About my choice, the faunus path…"

"Still want to go down that road?"

"I...I want to have a better understanding of my own kind so I can help them better"

"Alright then, I have some things to arrange, meet me at the Beacon air docks in the morning, I'll inform our team later"

"By morning you mean…"

"When the sun is rising"

"...What if I'm asleep?"

"I'll wake you up"

And on that note, I left to go chat with Ozpin.

(POV: Charles, during the incident two days ago… Location, Vale Residential District)

Something loud woke me up, and fear was seizing my body in ways I could not possibly comprehend. Stumbling out of my bed and down the stairs of my apartment, I opened the door to see some weird sights. I have a rare semblance which allows me to see aura even when it hasn't come together intensely enough for an ordinary person to see it. This was quite annoying sometimes, and my semblance never shuts off, and it doesn't use my aura thankfully. Looking into the sky was a massive aura, which was currently in the unseeable form. It was a sight that chills my bones just to think about. The aura in the sky was in pockets of red mist, a light black tint overlaying it, and occasionally it was so thick in the air it seemed like the body of a grimm, which some people could see. I followed the flow of aura back to it's source, and I have never been more confused while pissing myself. In the back of an alleyway a dark figure was repeatedly stabbing an already deceased corpse. The aura was lighting up the alley and the body had at least sixty stab wounds across it. The figure turned and smiled at me, the only thing visible on his face as the aura parts so I can see it. It picks up a sheath and it expands into a shield with two white crescents on it, the shield itself is wrapped in the shadow aura, save those crescents. The voice was something out of a horror movie.

"Hello friend, you know what they say right? No witnesses? Scatter, Crocea Mors." When that murderer says the last part his voice drops flat into a single monotone reflected by three voices, one old, one young, and one in the middle. I feel a sudden burning in my chest and notice the demon is gone, but in my chest are shallow cuts and marks that cover it, the pain was so unbearable I fell over. I can't believe he let me live but he did.

That brings me to my current situation. I'm what's left of a sane man, now I'm in a nice padded cell, bandaged up, and mumbling something about a murderer who isn't human. I've been doing this for two days…

(POV: Anima Nul, Present Day, At the Beacon air docks moments before the sun rises)

She's almost late...here I am at fucking five in the morning and she's almost-nevermind, she is late. A beam of sunlight just hit the ground in front of me while I am leaning against an enhanced rapid response dropship. Waiting for a cute faunus girl. Who is late. So I go to find her. Moments later I am in our team's dorm, and Blake is still asleep, so I flick one of her ears and she wakes up rubbing it and hits me in the face, making me fall over and smack the floor. And it woke up the other two.

"You guys leaving already?" Yang mumbles.

"We were supposed to be gone already"

"Can we come?" Ruby asks oh so innocently.

"Can they come Blake?" I whisper to her. "They'll figure out your a faunus"

"...We'll tell them on the way, just to get it over with"

"Ok then, if you two can get Ozpin's permission you can go with us, be at the ship in thirty minutes"

Thirty minutes later…

"So where are we headed missie?"

"Bring up the holomap"

The pilot hits a button displaying the world of Remnant as we know it and I observe the map, recalling from memory where the temple is.

"Here" I point to a small island above a continent that is shaped like a dragon and it's wings while the bottom half looks like a rock.

"That's a pretty far away place, I'll have to refuel to get back here"

"They have fuel there"

"Ok"

Going into the back of the place Yang is laying on her own bench of which there is two on opposite sides of the ship, Blake is sitting in a chair at the back reading a book, as usual, and Ruby is playing a game on her scroll sitting in a chair near the cockpit. I stand up and look out the window. I raise my hand and prepare to summon my mask.

"Stalker of the dead and damned, lend me your venom"

A deathstalker mask formed over my head and my body was wrapped in the familiar comfort of the grimm aura. A thin layer of flexible bone plating wrapped around my body as well, and at my wrists two blades curve out on each wrist, and extend past my hand as long as a short sword is. The blades were a pale yellow, like the deathstalker's stinger, and the deadly venom flows through them, ready to be left behind after a slice or stab. This change of form gained a look from Ruby and Yang, but Blake was too engrossed in her reading to notice. I turn around and see them looking, and I take off the mask and sit in a chair by Blake.

"So, Yang, any path that interests you?"

"Light. I want to protect my little sis after all" She gives me a smile and closes her eyes to rest.

"Ruby?"

"Well...Maybe darkness. Work fast, get rid of threats before they can hurt my friends, protect myself better so Yang won't have to work so hard to save me all the time"

"Well, while we are there we'll get your paths done too, but only if your still sure when we get there. Hey Kevin!"

"What?" The pilot answers

"I'm going to stretch my wings, kay?"

"As long as you don't fly into the turbine like an actual bird, sure"

I open a hatch on the floor and drop through it, earning a concerned look from the sisters, while Blake smiles. I have no clue if they said anything due to the roar of the wind, but soon I was flying around in nevermore form, letting the air pass over me, it was nice and relaxing, it was peaceful and serene.

After several hours we stopped for food in a town near the coast. I didn't bother to actually do anything, we all sent Yang on a run for food while we took naps in the dropship. I had a wonderful dream, I was playing 'tag' with beowolves while using my beowolf mask form. I woke to a thud as Yang intentionally stomps on the ground, alerting everyone to her presence. She hands out the food, she got herself some burgers, Ruby got a salad, some ham, and of course one cookie. I got two steaks, a hamburger, and a taco. Blake got some roast beef sandwiches. Yang also got us some things we didn't order. Ruby got a box of chicken strips, I got a whole turkey, and Blake got some sardines. Ruby gave me a weird look given all the food I had on my side.

"Hey, just because I'm a girl with a nice lean figure doesn't mean I can't eat everything on the planet" I took a fork and knife and dug into my food. God the turkey was delicious, and raw. Fresh kill I do believe. Savoring every bite of meat was easy, or it would have been had I not scarfed down the entire bird, and turned the bones into chew toys. It was wonderful. After we had all ate we thanked Yang.

"Hey guys…" Blake began. "I have a confession"

The sisters looked at her while I relaxed on my bench in the dropship.

"I uh...well…" She took off the bow to reveal those adorable cat ears of hers, earning a smile from both Yang and Ruby, and I smiled too, having missed the sight of those ears.

"Aww, I knew there was a reason I got sardines"

"Cool, so your a faunus like Anima?"

"Yep"

"Why hide it though?" Yang asks.

"Some humans aren't too kind to faunus, so I want to keep it a secret at least until I graduate"

"Smart, but if anyone gives you trouble I know a certain psychopathic hammer girl who can't wait to break someone's legs"

"And I will turn them into ice sculptures" I smile.

"and I'll pump em fulla holes" Ruby contributes to the conversation in a creepy manner, but hey, it was funny.

(Next chapter is going to be quite, quite, long compared to average, also, has anyone guessed the Vale Demon's name yet?)


	12. To tame a beast

It had been a long trip. I had managed to go a bit further with blake, convincing her to lay her head on my lap and let me read to her. Yang had nothing better to do but listen. Ruby however had been jamming out to her music, standing near the back of the dropship, crescent rose in sniper rifle form, and jamming out using it as a guitar. This kind of bonding is nice. I rub Blake's ears with my left hand while I hold the book with my right, her soft purring filling the gaps when I turn the page.

"We're here" the pilot announces after I finish the entire book.

"Talk about perfect timing" Yang says, while Ruby strums away, then drops into a split with a large strumming motion. I walk over and wave in front of her face, and she takes off her headphones.

"Yes?"

"We're here, and we're dropping in"

"Ok…"

I open the panel in the floor and form my grimm mask for the beowolf and jump down, landing perfectly. Next comes Yang, then Ruby, then Blake. I take in a huge sniff, memorizing each detail, the incense in the meditation rooms, the smell of sweat radiating from the combat training rooms and the dueling arena, and the fear and pride that came with that. Taking off the mask I look around as our dropship departed to get fueled up.

"Welcome to the Clear Path Monastery, home to the four paradigms of aura" We were in a stone brick courtyard that was massive in size, at the peak of the mountain it sets on.

"How well do you know this place?" Blake asked curiously.

"Well, my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I did ask someone to help us out"

"Anima!" I felt my heart skip a beat, it had been a good seven years. I turn and gaze upon a wolf faunus with Black hair and ears and a swinging tail, with blue eyes.

"Dad!" I ran to him, leaving my team a bit confused and jumped into his arms. He was wearing his casual wear, a pair of blue jeans so he didn't get thrown out for indecency, as well as a plain white t-shirt and a pair of light brown combat boots. He was much taller than me too.

"How've you been pup?"

"Good, I made it to Beacon like I always said I would"

"Nice! Are those your teammates?"

"Yep! The one who looks like a goth is our leader"

"Hey! That's mean" Ruby pouts.

"Alright, why don't I show you guys around?"

"Sure" Yang runs over.

"Your mom's out on a mission kiddo, it'll take about a month or so before she can return, at a guess"

"Aww"

We talked for the duration of our walk down a staircase into the heart of the area, where many faunus and humans walked, some had entered beast mode and had fur on their bodies, and some were wearing grimm masks with the added mutations that come with it. A few had a pale glow to their skin and some had shadows at their feet that moved out on all angles like a burning flame of darkness. Some were dressed in a traditional monastery get up, others were more casual and some were wearing combat gear of various types. God it felt good to be home. Dad led us aside to a housing area, then to a house reserved just for us. It had a flat roof so I could sleep on it and three beds for the others, as well as a fully stocked kitchen and a basement with tools for weapon maintenance and ammo manufacturing.

"Well, what do I owe the pleasure dear?"

"I'm going to be the instructor of my friends as they chose their paths"

"Well, good luck dear, I would help but you know the rules"

"I do"

A man calls from outside. "Silver! We got a pack of whelps trying to practice, get in here and show them what a true canine faunus is capable of!"

"Be there in a sec! Well," He pops his neck. "Duty calls" And off he goes.

"That was your dad?" Blake asks.

"Yep"

"I thought he would be an arctic wolf"

"Nah, I get my physicals traits, minus the faunus ones from my mom, she's a human"

"So, mom fell in love with big bad wolf? Like reverse red riding hood?" Yang offers her comments.

"Yep, and please never phrase it like that again…"

"Got it"

"He teaches everyone here how to fight who is willing to learn under him, and anyone who does take themselves into his training program becomes an honorary wolf faunus if they pass. It's a really demanding and painful training regiment that he imposes. Those without auras spend a good time in the hospital…"

"Sounds nice…"

"So Blake, wanna get started?"

"I… guess"

"Alright, you two behave" I jump up and pull Blake along.

"You can take off the bow,no one here is going to make fun of you, and if they do I am the daughter of the teacher of the most dangerous and rewarding combat and endurance schools"

"Maybe later, once I'm more assured"

"Ok" Along our way to the destination we come to another courtyard like area. Smells of incense comes from a doorway into a piece of the mountain on our left and the cries of war, and some of pain, and one person actually crying comes from our right. Continuing forward we descend farther down the mountain into a valley like area, a path flanked on all sides by the rising mountain. We exit that area quickly and come to another area that moves into a recreational area, and I lead Blake aside. She's been quiet so far. I lead her over to a doorway into the mountain itself and into a room with four gates, one has a sun adorning the top, another a moon, then a mask of grimm, and finally a door with three claw marks on the top. I lead Blake to that one.

"So, is this it?"

"Your training starts now, and I'll be your instructor. Place your hand against the palm of the beast" I rest my hand on her shoulder as she does, and our world vanishes into a flash of light.

"Where are we?" Blake asks as she looks around at the forest we are in.

"This is the area which we will make contact with your beast self. Each area is different, and the path to the beast paradigm requires you to first tame your inner beast through strength, then with cunning. Your beast will be much more difficult to kill than you, and if you die we will be ejected out of this world, and you will feel a nauseating pain for a day or two"

"What happens in the grimm path?"

"You wrestle with the temptations of power it brings, and must be able to keep your sanity as grimm invade your head in countless numbers. It's not very pleasant"

"Ok...So where's my beast at?"

"Hunting"

"Hunting?"

"Us"

A Blake-looking figure is at the edge of the treeline. Claws extended, slick fur covering her body in black, her cat ears listening intently, her eyes completely cat like with those slits present in them.

"Is that what I'll look like in beast form?" She sounds awe inspired, the opposite of most new people, probably because their beast form doesn't have the slicked down fur, but instead some werewolf like appearance, though that doesn't bother Silver.

"Now then, Blake, conquer your beast" I slap on my nevermore mask and take flight to watch from the sky. The first stage, force. Blake equips her weapons and dodges as her beast, with it's superior strength and speed, rushes into her and delivers an intense kick to Blake, who blocks it with both the katana and sheath, but finds her wrists hurting and herself sliding back some as the beast reorients itself for the next assault, dragging her claws up and then swiping downward, hitting a hard light clone of Blake's. Another clone slices out at the beast, who kicks it to make it shatter, and the real Blake smacks her with the sheath, and follows it with two quick slashes from her katana, then backs off to dodge a kick from her beast, then several swipes, each time getting closer and closer to hitting her, until one finally does, sending her a few feet away. She then ties the ribbon to her katana as it shifts into pistol mode. In her usual way of slinging it she boosts her traveling blade pistol with recoil from the heavy shots in it, and her beast form keeps her distance from the blade of death. Then she retracts her claws and picks up a rock, and hurls it with slightly more force than Blake could muster, but Blake did have to fire her pistol to shatter the rock, and it created an issue as her weapon recoiled away and her beast ran forward and kicked out at her, which Blake backs away from and swings her sheath up, colliding it with the face of her beast, then fires her pistol, and it comes back on recoil, slicing her beast, then she converts it into katana form and begins slicing away, occasionally creating clones to push off of to keep the beast from getting far enough away to have an opportunity of escape. This combo lasted for minutes before her beast form shattered into fragments of light that vanished into the air.

"Did, did I win?"

"For now. round two is much more difficult"

As if on cue her weapon vanished. Then her beast form started piecing itself together.

"W what?"

"You have to now find a way to beat it without weapons"

"You have got to be -Ouf!" Her beast finished materializing and delivered a square kick to her chest, launching her back. The beast then took up a feral approach on all fours.

"Keep up kitty cat" I taunt.

Blake dodges attack after attack, sacrificing aura to create more clones to take some of the hits, then she ducks under one of the strikes and delivers a punch to the creature's chest, then leaps up and kicks her in the face, but the beast rides out the impact and kicks her in the back, sending the poor faunus flying.

"Ow ow ow ow" Blake rolls along the ground after impact, and leaps up to take a kick to the legs and a backhand that sent her flying once again.

"Focus, use defense paired with cunning offense"

She dodges under a swing then uses her aura to launch herself up to dodge another swing, then dropkick her beast in the face and roll away.

"Into the forest, find something to use to your advantage"

Blake heard me, and dodged an attack, left behind two clones and ran. Looking at my scroll I can tell she's almost at her end in terms of aura. The beast is done with the clones almost instantly and chases after her, easily overtaking the faunus, but in the short time in the woods she had found a sturdy tree limb and broken it off of the tree and broken off the top of it to make a staff. When the beast rounded a tree the staff came down onto her head and knocked her into the ground. Blake quickly jumped back up into the tree and the beast hit the clone left behind, and down came Blake, smashing the staff back onto the beast and running away. This type of pursuit went on for an actual hour, due to the fact that in one engagement the staff was clawed into a spear, which was used to stab into one of the beast's leg tendons and slow it down dramatically. After that hour Blake had whittled down it's aura, which had taken on a highly defensive role instead of an attack enhancement role shortly after the spear pierced it's slight aura guard. Blake and the creature are both exhausted by this point.

"Good, finish it"

Blake lifts the spear over her head and falls down, driving said spear through it's chest, and it vanishes into light fragments.

"Time for your final challenge"

"H, huh?"

I drop down beside her in deathstalker form, the blade resting lightly on her cheek.

"Concentrate what aura you can muster into the image of what you have been fighting this time, the beast within you"

"I'll t try"

I walk away smiling under the mask, then turn to face Blake as she changes into her beast form after several minutes of concentration. The change came so slow, but her aura was greatly bolstered in power, the combination of her aura's natural power and the beast that she had defeated. Her claws were much sharper and her speed was slightly higher than the beast's, same with strength, but the beast wasn't much stronger than her to begin with, it just used aura to augment all of her attacks.

"Blake Belladonna, prove you deserve this power." I state flatly and coldly, the same way my instructor did with me when I was finding my path.

"I will" She looks determined, and I was ready to challenge this newfound power.

A flurry of black hit me like a cannonball, with an augmented kick containing half of her aura, sending me flying and greatly injuring me despite the armor bonus.

"If that's how we're playing this…" I duck under a claw swipe and cut into her abdomen and dive away, but she pursues me, slicing away with her claws as she judges my speed, so I take a stand, then a stab at her, hitting a hard light clone, which shatters to reveal a beast in full sprint that suddenly dropkicks me right in the face. She is a crafty one, and my mask was shattered by the impact, as well as my head. Did I ever tell you that dying stings like a bitch? Cause trust me, if you are somehow conscious when bones from your skull enters your brain, and slices it up all the shit like, and the impact also causes your spine and jaw to move and fracture some, it stings. Like. A. Bitch. Of course I won't show that pain once I leave, I'll only be feeling a minor headache then.

And I did. I also found myself flying back onto the ground and earning another injury, but my aura brushed it off quickly. Soon Blake was also back in her senses, and in her natural form.

"I took it easy on you, and nice full power finish"

"I could feel your poison in my skin so I had to work fast, and easy would have been the boarbatusk you haven't dared to even attempt yet"

"Fuck that, being a boarbatusk makes you excruciatingly slow, and that is not how I fight"

"Well.. that was something, why don't I feel tired or exhausted?"

"It was more or less a dream state we entered, a change of conscious reality or however dad put it. And my head feels like shit after that kick...well, next up is Yang...can I get a good luck kiss?"

"Only on the cheek, no further"

"I can manage with that" Tried to play that one off cool, but something tells me the fact my tail was waving fast enough to cut something gave away my excitement as Blake actually kissed my cheek. I don't think there are words to describe the joy I felt, then the misery when I realized I'm about to spend alone time with the brawler. Of course I didn't realize that until we made it back, all the way my tail wouldn't stop wagging.


	13. Reaper of shadows Burning Sun

(I did promise a long ass chapter earlier, but it was delayed, until now)

When we got back the house was completely empty. Blake gave me another kiss on the cheek, this time a bit closer to my lips. It was nice, but I didn't realize how teasing she could be, cause right after that kiss she slowly pulled away, breathing a bit heavier to get me thinking, then once she had finally pulled away she marched over to her chair and started reading, a smirk playing over her face.

"Better go find them" She says seductively, just to torment me further. I sigh and walk out of the room, and begin a search for them. Found Ruby in the armory admiring all the weapons that some use, so I slip out and look for yang, which wasn't hard. I heard her before I smelled her, an echoing cascade of varying punching sounds. I followed that into one of the combat area's vast training rooms, and she was relentlessly hitting the bag. Some sand was leaking out of it, and there were two broken bags lying on the floor next to her. In the distance was a small whimper, guessing dad's teaching in here somewhere…

"Hey Yang, c'mon"

"How'd Blake do?"

"Her form is currently unpracticed, but she has conquered her beast"

"Cool, alright let's go" Yang delivers one final punch and the bag flies off the hook and hits the ground, then I lead Yang back into the room with the four gates, along the way Yang occasionally winked or flirted with some people.

"Well, here we are"

"Cool place, where do I go?"

"Go touch the sun"

She smiles and presses her fist to it and I tap her shoulder as the world blinks away and into her training ground, a small black platform amid an actual sea of blue flames.

"Woah" She looks around, while I fall. Yeah not enough room for both of us on the platform, so I use my nevermore mask again and watch from above.

"The light represents protection, support, and is generally symbolized by fire. Your aura will be able to act as a shield for others, and this training is unique, as you can access your defender form here"

"Annnd I do that how?"

"Your energy is more potent coming from the sun, but as you can see we don't have a sun here, so you have to make your own with your aura"

"Ok then" Yang forms a ball of her aura, but it's highly unstable and flickers out pretty fast. We're gonna be here for a while. And we were. It was at least an hour until she got a stable one, but she didn't have enough aura to make it powerful enough to manifest as a mini sun to draw from. So we had to leave while Yang let her aura regen. It was kinda funny, but wasting no time I went beowolf and hunted down the red reaper. I think I scared her since in my rush I tripped over a wooden staff and almost crushed her, only missing since she took out her scythe and used it as a shield. I got up and took off the mask.

"h hi"

"You scared the crap outta me!"

"Sorry sorry, uh it's your turn to go now"

"Did Blake do good?"

"She needs to train in her beast form but she did acquire it"

"And Yang?"

"We're going to try again tomorrow"

"Oh…" She looked a bit saddened, then perked up realizing it's her turn.

"What are we waiting for?" And then she vanished into rose petals. She returned a moment later a bit sheepishly.

"So, uh, where to?"

I roll my eyes, which can't be seen due to the mask over them. "Follow me" Wasting no time I barrel out of the armory on all fours, claws adding traction to my sprint as Ruby follows me without using her semblance. Damn she is fast, the darkness path is perfect for this fairy tale character I suppose.

"Here we are" I announce as we enter the room, and she looks over to the moon gate.

"That mine?"

"Yep"

"This is going to be sooo cool! Wait, how'd Yang fail hers?"

"The defending role of the sun first requires the user to form a perfectly spherical sun that can maintain itself long enough to power up the person who summoned it, Yang spent all her aura trying to make one of those, so when her aura is back tomorrow we're gonna try again. Now, please place your hand on the circle that looks like a black sun"

As Ruby complies I put my hand on her back and in a sudden blindness instead of a flash, we find ourselves on the top of a hill overlooking a grassland that is remarkably and completely flat. The moon hangs overhead, it's pale light giving Ruby her shadow.

"First step is simple. Channel your aura into the presence of your shadow"

"Ok, here goes" I can see a dark red flicker from her body and into the shadow.

"Try bending your shadow with your aura"

She does easily.

"Wow, that was fast"

"I'm a fast person"

"Next comes a fun part. The darkness allows for shadow manipulation, but also allows a manipulation of an enemy's mind with illusions. In here that can be done, but you must be able to create at least one of them before you can have a chance of doing it outside this place"

"Ok then…"

"Let's start with something simple" A beowolf spawns and looks angrily at her.

"Blake's semblance is actually an advanced version of a shadow clone shadow users can create. Blake can alter her clones and use them as actual shields and use them to attack, but ours are merely decoys, try creating one to the sides of the beowolf to keep it from attacking you"

"Alright…" Her aura starts being channeled into a copy of herself, and she effectively throws the copy from herself. Sloppy, but it worked. I sit down and curl up in a ball while watching her attempt to create a clone she doesn't need to throw like a ball away from her body to make it appear somewhere. After a boring ten minutes of this me and the beowolf are both asleep. Don't ask how I ended up laying on top of it's shoulder, but I did. Another fifteen pass when Ruby wakes me up, and shows me her creating a clone five feet from her, which could be useful, but she definitely needs more practice.

"Good enough for now" I snap and the beowolf wakes up and hits the clone, and both of them vanish.

"Now then, lets try again" An ursa appears out of nowhere and swings a paw at her, which she dodges, then takes out her scythe and slashes at it, just to discover her scythe is passing through the ursa with no effect.

"The clones, gotta make the ursa mistake you for a clone" I say, curling back up and offering no further support to the scythe wielder, even when she smacks into the ground in front of me due to a lucky shot by the ursa. Then another and another. When is she going to stop blocking with her scythe and use a clone? I get how difficult this is but putting two and two together should be simple. Finally she does manage to get a clone right in the ursa's face and it smashes into it, both disappearing into shadow like fragments, which dissolve into the air quickly.

"Good, good. Now, this is going to be a fun one. Last test, which is also the hardest. A shadow warrior can move at impressive speeds and manipulate illusions, so they can combat groups with some success, with that scythe and your semblance it should be a lot easier. So…" Suddenly the land was filled with what amounted to about three hundred beowolves that did not have any plates on them save the mask.

"What?…" Ruby looked stunned. Didn't help that the beowolves started already sprinting at her, with a ten yard gap. And the first beowolf made contact with a shoulder charge, sending her back, and she got up looking terrified.

"You can do it, kick ass"

She turns and dodges the next, suppressing her fear and letting natural skill take over. She fires a blast down to propel her high into the sky, then another and another as she shot the beowolves from above. She created five clones which fell down and gathered the pack's attention as she went higher. When she came down they were sniffing where the clones were, confused about this event change. Little red fired a shot behind her and to the left, sending her to the side of the pack, which turned to face her as she dissolved her body into rose petals. Reappearing at the other side of the pack her aura had been missing a giant chunk compared to how much she had left, and the pack now had eighty four members. Looks like the lack of armor on them was a downfall, but I don't make the rules. Soon after that she fired round after round into the wolf grimm, not bothering to add aura due to the lack of defense they had. By the time the pack reorganized and assaulted her they were down to sixty. Then they hit a clone. I honestly don't know how she did the following, but somewhere along the line she ditched the clone, moved to the other side of the pack, and began firing on them again. Down to forty. And she did it again, down to twenty. Then she directed her aura into her shadow and it moved behind the beowolf and she traveled through the shadow to the back of the pack, where she began slicing them apart, dodging attacks with her semblance and returning them with bullets and slashes. When she finished she actually collapsed from exhaustion. So I took a nap. I woke up to see the reaper standing over me, nudging me awake with the scythe. Her shadow had taken on the black sun look, so I walked away from her and donned the deathstalker mask, then turned to face her.

"Ready?"

"Yep"

And she was gone into rose petals, but I felt her before I saw those petals. The amplification of her natural speed combined with her extreme speed semblance let her dash and slash through me before I knew what was happening. Then she shot me right in the face, and I woke up in the real world with my headache again. Ruby got up and stretched, then activated her shadows and ran out of the room, in a literal blur. What hell had I unleashed? It was dark now, so I went to the house we were staying in to find Blake in beast form on the roof, so I jumped up and scratched her ears, earning a purr from her as she shifted back to normal, and I kept scratching.

"So, Ruby is now so fast she could defeat an army in the blink of an eye if she didn't have an aura limit"

"that's…unsettling"

"Yep"

"And Yang punched a hole in the basement, hers not go over so well? "

I roll off her and look up at the stars. "Nope"

"What happened?"

"She ran out of aura during the first trial, at the end of it she got the basics down, but didn't have enough aura to continue"

"Well, hopefully she'll get it tomorrow"

Blake looks up to the stars and I roll on top of her and bury my head in her neck.

"You're a tease you know that?"

I can tell she's nervous because I can hear her heart pounding in her chest. I can feel mine, and my tail is back to wagging around.

"Anima…"

"Shh...relax my kitten"

"O ok…"

We spent the night cuddling on the roof, oblivious to anything else, save Yang occasionally breaking something and the sounds of machinery in motion as Ruby works on her weapon. They were a part of my family now, and if they weren't, well the next several years of school would be shit.

And I woke up being dragged. Yep, Yang...And the worst part was I had been asleep on a beautiful faunus for the past two hours…

"Yang?"

"Oh, your awake" She dropped my arm and I got up stretching.

"You really want this to be done huh?"

"I want to be able to protect us, the team I love, so yeah, lets hurry this up"

We walk into the room and Yang touches the sun and I touch her, and in that blinding flash of light we are in that area again, and once again there seems to be no place for me on the platform so I embrace the nevermore form to keep from plunging into the fiery hell under me. Yang wastes no time trying to generate the sun orb again, this time she had a perfect spherical orb after five minutes. Next she creates the fire within it that turns said sun into an aura reactor, and it converts the sphere surrounding it into pure heat energy, which Yang reabsorbs into her body. The aura gives her a radiating yellow glow to her body, and two seven by seven foot platforms of black metal form and combine, and I land on one.

"Now, your aura will have been changed due to the fire present in it from the flaming catalyst. You will regen your normal aura over time as you use your current elastic like aura. To get more of it you have to recreate the sun or draw direct solar energy"

"Bit cliche huh?"

"Yep, but it's what you gotta do"

"Got it, what's next?"

"That large ursa over there-"

"What large ursa?"

I sigh as shadows on the next platform wrap around themselves and turn into an ursa the size of a garbage truck covered in bone plates.

" _That_ " I point "large ursa over there will attack me, and you will have to pump your aura into me to keep me alive for thirty seconds. If I die we will both be penalized, me from the standard headache feeling, and you with a sudden burst of nausea"

I don't feel so safe, but Yang's blazing yellow aura does find itself accumulating around me, and she is really trying hard to maintain the link. Then a massive paw bats me away, and hell did it hurt, but Yang's aura kept the damage down. I got up and ran at the bear, and it smacked me around again, and again. AND AGAIN! HOW DO INSTRUCTORS PUT UP WITH THIS PART? Yang passed, but at the end of that I did have a broken arm and internal bleeding, so it seemed a good a time as any to go over how she can use her aura to heal wounds.

"Y Yang...P pump some aura *cough* Into my wounds. T think *cough* healing thou *cough* thoughts…"

I thought I died, but the stinging feeling remained, so I slowly opened my eyes to discover my arm and wounds had healed within the thirty minutes I spent passed out due to blood loss. Of course Yang spent almost all her aura to repair just a broken arm and soe opened veins, but I lived, did not expect that. Getting up slowly I stretched to make sure everything was functional, and smiled at Yang over there, who was sitting down waiting.

"Done being KOed?"

"I think so, despite a slight stinging pain I feel great"

"So what's next?"

"You'll be using your aura to help boost my attacks, if you need to replenish your stock go ahead"

Yang shakes her head and channels her aura into me, this time it seems unstable, signifying the damage variety. I went into ursa mode and her aura was channeled by me into my hands as a wall about five feet thick made of solid steel appears and I begin pounding holes into it, expending the aura Yang had given me. I used my own aura to help reduce the pain that comes with relentlessly smashing your hand against a steel wall, despite the damage being achieved to the wall itself. That went by fast, and we moved on to the final part.

"Take a nap, when you wake up we'll start the stressful end test"

"But I'm fine with what I got"

"Maybe if you could activate your semblance, but you currently have no build up to ignite it"

"Alright, but I can't just go to sle-ugh!"

I landed next to her and nicked her arm with my deathstalker blades.

"What was that for?"

"The deathstalker venom in my blades conveys a very strong tranquilizer effect. In about ten seconds you'll be tired, ten more and your body will start to shut down, then after five seconds you pass out"

"Oh, thanks I guess?"

"Your welcome"

Ten seconds later… "I feel tired…"

Ten seconds after that… "Well, there goes my arms...Legs...zzz"

I decided to fly around the flaming lands, and explore, until the Icarus effect hit me. For those of you who don't know who Icarus was, he was a century old nevermore who plagued all of humanity for years until one day in an attempt to destroy a mountain village it suddenly flew up into the sun and it's wings were singed off. In my case I got literally shot by fire from the sun for getting too close. And I fell. Right into the sea of blue flames, where I was burned alive and kicked out of Yang's world. I took this reprieve to finally get some food. I had a whole turkey, my dad had cooked it and left it in the stove when he got home, and I had been dragged too far away to smell the sweet juicy bird. It's been a long time since I had one of dad's meals, still kinda feel bad for leaving all those years ago. Bird eaten and consumed, I walked up onto the roof and rubbed Blake's belly while she slept, getting some purring sounds from her. I also decided to read one of her books, and after thirty minutes I went back to finish Yang's training. Then maybe I could get some damn sleep.

After arriving back I casually kicked Yang in the chest, and she woke up, got up, then delivered a buckshot accentuated punch to my face, thank god my aura was up.

"Damnit you don't just start with that to wake someone up!"

"Ow"

"Good" She then delivered a spartan kick to my chest, and I fell down off the platform, so I had to go into nevermore form and fly up.

"Well, now you know how I feel"

"What, I drag you off your kitty cat and you get pissed?"

"If I dragged you off someone you liked you'd be pissed too"

"...maybe"

"Can we continue now?"

"Sure, final test, you have to simultaneously defend one target, and bolster the attack of another. Do that for a total of five minutes and the gate will pass judgement on if you can keep this form, it already sided in favor for the other two, so time for you to join us"

"Got it, bring it on"

I feel a bit bad for not fully telling her what she is bolstering the defense of, as she channels defensive aura into a dummy and offensive aura into another, when all of a sudden a goliath, gigantic elephant grimm, stomped on the defensive dummy. The amount of aura Yang had to put into the defense caused her to be able to feel the pain from the goliath's foot being pressed down onto the dummy. This in turn activated her semblance, which blew my fucking mind, as all of a sudden she tripled aura output, the dummy actually shoving away the goliath, and the other radiating combatative energy. It was amazing. And more importantly, she passed.

"WOHOO" Yang pounded her fists together, and initiated another quite catastrophic thing. See, Yang's semblance has a full blast release mode, which is triggered by said action. Amplified by the natural aura being quick changed into the flaming elastic aura by a sun, which I'm guessing was inside her or her heat being produced by the release produced such light it was the equivalent to the sun's, All her now fiery aura, and her flaming semblance, released like a localized nuke. That was the second time I was ejected from Yang's world, and my god, the delay before leaving the place that you have full awareness of was never more painful. I was scraped into ashes. IT BURNED LIKE A BITCH, I MEAN SERIOUSLY THAT WAS WHAT HELL WAS!

"Goddamn it!" Yang stood up, and yawned. Good, she was tired, maybe she won't pester me while I get some sleep.

"So you going to train us?"

"I'll try, I just read the manual for all this the day I got to Beacon"

"So that's what you were doing instead a listening in Peach's class"

"Yep, wanted to be able to guide Blake through her path"

"So…" We start leaving the gate rooms.

"Yeah?"

"You really like her huh?"

"Yep"

"Cool"

Well, we do work well, I suppose, but one on one socialization with her doesn't work. Arriving back at the house I departed from Yang and slipped back onto the roof and resumed laying on Blake just how I did before I left, and she slid her arms around me like I had never left. It felt good and relaxing to be in her arms, and I smiled as I fell asleep.


	14. Tag

We'd been there for a total of five days before we left, in one day everyone got their paradigms, and then three days of training. The monastery was quite peaceful, despite Yang having challenged my dad to a fight. Needless to say, the clean up was where the last day went. Now we're just arriving back at Beacon, to be greeted by the first week's worth of homework. Damn, I had totally forgot. Ozpin hadn't. I got most of the dust homework done immediately and helped the others with theirs. Blake had mastered the Flora classes and guided us through our homework, and since we somehow had written homework for combat class, we pooled our efforts since we were to answer questions based on fighting styles. It was sufferable. We took at least five hours trying to get through all the classwork and homework left for us, thank god Oobleck was merciful and Port only teaches with hands on grimm experience, so Peach and Goodwitch were the only people who gave us homework.

"Now...What the hell should we do?" A bored Yang asks. I just shrug and open the window.

"How about…" I survey the area, finding no one, but even if I did, what would it matter? Classes were out over the weekends so we could chill while the sun was out.

"Let's play tag" I then look over at Ruby. "No semblance, aura use to boost speed, or weapons"

"Got it"

"Now that it's settled...Tag!" I slap Yang's hand and roll back to the window then out of it. Blake and Ruby quickly follow, and right before I land I see Yang's hand grab Ruby's cloak and pull her in, then leap out of the window. The game was on. I decided to chill out on a bench, and I watched the reaper pursue the kitten while the fighter was running into the school. Ruby and Blake were pretty fast, and eventually Ruby gave up trying to tag her and turned towards me. I got up, turned around, and ran. She chased me all the way to the fountain in front of the school the which I jumped onto and climbed quickly, then leaped off of as Ruby had gotten halfway up it, and I departed into the school. I decided it best to sit in the library, which is where I found Blake hiding at. A quick sniff revealed the presence of just one other individual, who already knew Blake's secret, Velvet. Blake already knew all the faunus would be able to sniff her out, she had a panick attack over it a week before we were going to Beacon. Took so much reassurance to calm her down that I passed out after the stressful ordeal. I casually stroll over and sit next to her.

"Hey kitty ca-" I was cut off by a loud thump followed by Yang triumphanlty shouting tag, then the sound of people sprinting past the library.

"..."

"I think we're fine Ani"

"Hope so, I wanna formally invite you to a night out on the roof"

"Really? We hang out on the roof all the time"

"This will be a more romantic night, and it will be on top of the tower, if you think you can make it to the top"

"I wou-"

"TAG!" … again…

"I would like th-"

"TAG!" … Jesus Christ, give me the patience not to beat the shit outta them.

"I would like to join yo-"

"TAG!" Sonofabitch.

"Sounds nice"

"See you there"

...no shouting… Then the door was pushed open, and in ran Ruby, followed by Yang. Blake and I kinda slipped behind the back bookshelf and into the corner between it and the wall.

"Come back here!"

"Never!"

"shh" I whisper to Blake, then move into the corner and get Blake to press up against me with her head bowed so they won't see her bow. I mainly did this cause it feels nice, though my tail was pressed uncomfortably against the wall. It did have a tactical advantage however, since when Yang and Ruby eventually made it back to us neither spotted us.

"So, around tenish?"

"Sure"

"You drink?"

"Only during celebrations"

"I'll bring some wine"

"Where on earth is a sixteen year old going to get wine?" She takes on a slightly mocking yet quite interested tone.

"Trust me sweetheart, I've got my ways"

Out of the corner of my eye I spot something red.

"Tag" Ruby taps Blake and runs, and Blake smacks my leg and says tag, then flees with Ruby, leaving me with a hurt leg. I later found Ruby in our dorm, having been looking for something, so I tagged her with a push as she passed Yang's bed, sending her into it while I slam the door on my way out. This deterred my leader and I got a great lead on her, which she was slowly but surely overcoming. Luckily I passed Blake, and Ruby got her after I passed, allowing me a reprieve as I approach an open window, climb onto it, then the roof. After thirty minutes Yang, who had quickly become the seeker, gave up, and the sun was setting, so I had to work fast setting up the, uhh, date? It is a date right? My heart fluttered a bit at that thought, and like so many people before, I was under the impression nothing could ruin the night.


	15. The cloud forms

I had secured earlier mentioned bottle of wine, a picnic basket, some food, a blanket, and two wine glasses. I had climbed all the way to the top of Beacon's tower, then climbed down some and set up on the flat area that was the roof of Ozpin's office. Luckily he slept elsewhere. Blake arrived some time later. Not exactly sure when, I just know it was a bit after ten. I heard her coming, so I took a seat so she would pop up behind me.

"Hey puppy"

"I will bite"

She pats my back as she sits next to me and I show her my teeth, earning a small smile. I open the picnic basket and take out some bread, a medium sized fish, and some hamburgers in a fresh seal bag, recently cooked. Blake took the fish and a plate, then got a knife and began cutting off the inedible parts, while I ate my hamburgers.

"Nice night huh?"

"Reminds me of before we came to Beacon" She answers, grabbing a bit at my curiousity.

"How so?"

"You would go out on the roof constantly, and that one night I came out eating a sandwich"

"Now we've got a full meal"

"Yeah"

She finally starts eating the fish, after removing everything she didn't want and shoving it somewhere in the basket.

"So, enjoying that book?"

Her cheeks grew a bright pink while she ate.

"Which part's your favorite chapter?"

More silence as she eats, so I finish my burger, then start the guessing game.

"Was it the part under the waterfall?" No reaction. "The two in the pool?" Nope. "When they got caught?" Nope… "Was it the part in the basement?" Her cheeks went from pink to red, and she put down the fish and reached into the basket and took out the wine bottle after some fumbling, then opens it and drinks some, then puts the bottle down and I slide my arm around her and pull her into my lap.

"Someone likes kinky huh"

Silence. I take off her bow and lay it next to the basket, then I pet her ears, earning some purrs.

"C'mon kitty cat"

"...meow"

I take a drink from the wine bottle.

"Your cute you know that?" I grab two glasses out of the bag and fill both of them with wine, and hand one to Blake as I drink the other.

"meow" She smiles and curls up on my lap, taking a small sip of wine before purring.

I move my head down so it's next to her ear and I give a low growl, making her laugh some.

Several glasses of wine later and we were curled up together with our backs against one of the tower supports, still growling and purring to each other. It was pretty cute, but something quickly caught both of our attentions. While we had drank the whole bottle of wine by now our sense of smell was still pretty good, and while neither of us mentioned that we could smell the other's excitement, we did both shudder when a metallic scent bit at our noses. Blood. We got up quickly, albeit clumsily, and went to find out where the smell was coming from. Our trip took us both down to the Beacon armory, where the scent was damn near overpowering, like at least fifty people were bleeding out after some sort of battle, but from our position hidden behind a wall I only saw one person in there, that Jaune kid. He looked relatively clean, like he just took a shower, and he was currently cleaning an intense amount of blood off his sword and shield. I heard him mumble something about getting carried away and way too many victims this time. I might have accidentally knocked something over, not sure what, but he turned on a dime and stared right at the wall, which both of us were now hiding behind. Our weapons were still in our dorm room, so we couldn't really afford a fight. That thought was disrupted as his sword came stabbing through the wall, cutting lightly into the side of my cheek.

"Well well, someone found me… you two are going to keep quite about this or I'll kill you both, understand?" Jaune walked around to see us, he sounded like killing us right now was no big deal, and if this wimp thought he could kill us he must be high, drunk, or something, right? So I stood up, and was kneed in the chest. Through the wall, and through the sink he was washing his weapon off with. By how I felt at least five ribs seemed broken, and my aura was all the way up in defensive mode. Either he bypassed my aura or he has much more strength than anyone thought. Blake threw a punch at him and he grabbed her hand, then threw her against the ground, and it cracked from the force.

"Let me repeat myself, this incident stays between us, or I'll kill you"

We both nod and I look at Blake's hand, which is bleeding from fingernail sized cuts.

"We'll stay silent, promise"

"Good, and if you don't I'll add you and the rest of your team's blood to Crocea"

We fled quickly and back to our spot on the roof, not wanting to be seen by our teammates and be dragged into a conversation of lies. The cuts on Blake's hand healed up pretty fast, but they were just small cuts. My ribs would take a few days at the least.


	16. Distractions and a KO

A few days later and we still haven't spoken a word to or about Jaune. He still plays the part of everyone's lovable dork and bullying victim, and only Blake and I know about that murderous side, even his own team is oblivious, and he got Pyrrha to help train him, so no one is going to believe us even if we do try and call him out on it. He makes it a habit of seeing us each day and geusturing to slit our throats, just to remind us he's got us cornered. Ruby had asked about my condition since I had been having some reoccuring pains in my chest, so Blake told her we had a training accident and she shattered some of my ribs. It seemed to work as no one asked further, and by now they were close to being fully healed. A day ago Jaune faced off against Cardin in the arena and he deliberately let Cardin win, he's also doing Cardin's homework. All part of his elaborate scheme to make sure no one finds out about him. Clever bitch. Ozpin had chalked up the armory's broken wall and sink to a weapon discharge, either on purpose or accident, and was also none the wiser. Once again night had settled and I had just finished my homework, as had the rest of my dorm room team. We're expected to help clear an area of beowolves tomorrow for Professor Port, and Oobleck's got a test for us as well. Beowolves yay, academic stuff? Boo. Our leader was probably the happiest to go kill some grimm, she had been polishing and disassembling and reassembling Crescent Rose all night. Yang was sorta happy, but the test part bummed her out. I could hear her grumbling things about the faunus war, trying to remember most of Oobleck's lectures. Blake was somewhere else, the library I think, maybe not. I've been spending my time sitting in the floor of our room, going through all of my dust, and blending some to make my special grey dust. It requires force amplifying white dust, mixed with the repulsion power of black dust. When activated by aura the dust excerts force based on where the aura is to move away from it, the black dust properties, and the white dust amplifies it's force upon making contact. Of course I'm only going over this to distract myself from recent events. I would be making new dust in here, but I learned my lesson about working in areas you like when I was originally trying to make my grey dust in my room. Resulted in a hole in the wall and slashes across my pillow. I covered up the hole with a poster and stitched the pillow, then turned it over so no one would ask.

In recent times I was getting close to a new type of dust using the violet dust and lightning dust to form dense pockets of clouded lightning, lethal to anyone without aura in it and highly devastating to those who do have aura. I decided to go down into the training room and continue testing in a safer environment.

"I'll be back guys"

"Yeah ok have fun wherever" Ruby was too into her current reassembly of the scythe to care. Yang waved and continued trying to remember Oobleck's lessons. She's doomed.

I passed Jaune in the hallway, Nora was making him give her a piggyback ride to their dorm. When I walked past him a chill crept up my spine and I had to force myself not to shudder, and once they passed I ran to the training room. I walked over into a sparring zone and began laying out the dust I would be using. Nearby I could see Blake, odd to see her here. She was facing off against Cardin and his team, and was doing quite well. Turning my mind from her I continued. I placed two bits of the dust together in a tube and sparked it with aura, the result was a small circular mist about an inch in diameter with violet lightning streaking through it. So let's make this bigger. I poured half a vial of the yellow lightning powder into an empty vial and followed it with the illusionary purple dust. I ducked and activated the dust, and it shot out into the air and manifested a cloud of circular composition like before and it was large enough to encase the average person with ease. The lighting was more noticeable and more intense. It darted through the cloud quickly and after thirty seconds the lethal cloud was gone. I had to test this on someone...and my gaze fell on Cardin. Despite the severity of the asswhooping Blake unleashed on his team, he managed to stay well out of danger, and I walked over to him after synthesizing another mixture of dust.

"So, letting all your boys take the heat huh?"

"They need the training, you've been trained haven't you?"

I knew what he meant by that but I let it slide.

"We should have a one on one fight, less your scared I'll win"

"Hmp. Your on"

We moved in after Blake finished mopping the floor with his team, and they sat on a bench to watch. A few of them cheered for Cardin, and Blake smiled at me, then began reading, flicking her eyes up every now and then to check on my progress. Cardin hefted his mace over his back and walked towards me, his aura ready for any attack I had planned. He took a swing when he was close enough and I responded by taking the blended vial and smashing it on the ground as I rolled under him, and activating it by sending a small pulse of aura out to it. The result was him being snagged in the cloud and shocked quite vigorously. The lightning overloaded his nerves and kept his body from reacting, save the forced spasms being inflicted. When the storm subsided his aura had dropped a good forty eight percent. Fabulous. He recovered and went after me, so I ducked and delivered an elbow to his side, then stood back up behind him and jabbed my other elbow against his spine, then I jump back and get out my knives, covering the blade of Grim with lightning dust and Sever with violet dust, ready to test my experiment again. Then a reoccuring pain from my ribs distracted me and he caught me with a downward swing to my head, augmented by a large portion of his remaining aura. My head smacked against the ground and I tried to get up, but he stomped on the back of my head first, then let me get up. The head blows had me disoriented, and another aura augmented swing put me out cold.


	17. Revenge

"Damn...what happened?" What I first noticed was the smell of antiseptic, not in my room but nearby. Then the smell of a sterile area. Then the fact I was on a bed in the hospital and the sun was rising.

"Shit…" I said to no one since the room was empty. There was a card and some flowers, sorry, vision doubled for a second, a flower, on the bedside table. I read the card and laughed a bit at what it said. 'Heard you took a headshot, watched it too, you over cocky pup, wake your ass up. -Blake'. Yeah, hate to see the card I would get if something serious happened. I tried to get up, but found a black ribbon tied around my arms and chest, Blake's...what the hell happened while I was out? Kinda don't want to think about it too much. I resigned myself to falling back asleep. I woke up to that familiar and comforting scent, then a painful smack.

"Son of a bitch!"

And another…

"Ow!" I look up towards my attacker, the cat of my dreams and nightmares, mainly since she slaps harder than Cardin can hit, or maybe it's the slight emotional sting and sense of being put in place that sometimes comes with getting bitch smacked.

"I am a cat, not a dog"

"I'm sorry, and why the hell did you tie me down?"

"So you wouldn't just get up and wander off like at the hospital in Vale"

"Oh…" They didn't know I was up and had left. Cops combed the city for me thinking I had been kidnapped.

"You were thinking about the basement scene weren't you!" Her voice was filled with an accusation which was, regrettably, true.

"I was hoping I would be the one tying you up, but I can deal with being the sub"

She sticks her tongue out playfully and works on untying me.

"I feel better, despite the new headaches you gave me, thanks for asking"

"Well, you started a fight despite your injury" She finishes untying me and I move out of the bed.

"And you also called me a bitch despite me not being a dog"

"I'm sorry ma'am"

"Good girl" She rubs my wolf ears and I growl softly in response. Damn my sensitive ears and her skilled hands… Anyways, onto revenge. A sinister smile creeped over my face and I found the same smile slowly take over Blake. My pranks of revenge have amused her since the weeks she spent living in that apartment I rented for us.

"Revenge plans so soon?"

"Oh big time"

"And how do you intend to do it, hmm?"

"That's a secret"

"Aww"

"You'll know when it happens, I'll make sure you can witness it"

"Wonderful, now if you need me I'm going to try and finish the final chapter of my book before we head out on our class hunting trip"

"Ok"

(POV: Third, Location, Atlas)

Two shadowed out figures stand back to back with a thin wall separating them.

"So, you know what's going down at Vale right?"

"Of course"

"And your son is running amok and you allow it?"

"Yes"

"I will stop him if I have to"

"And you plan on doing that how?"

"The same way I stopped your grandfather during the great war"

"Stow it, you only survived that fight because Ozpin was helping you"

"Yet I succeeded"

"Ozpin won't always be there for you"

"Why do you let him do this?"

"Crocea Mors is a blade of retribution, and all Arcs are instilled with the knowledge behind it at birth"

"Do you really have a life of your own then?"

"You do. Jaune chose to be a murderer, finding the easiest way to repay the blood debt was with hunters and civilians alike. I chose to repay the tribute with the blood of criminals"

"I remember, the crimson vigilante"

"Indeed. My great grandfather repaid the tribute with the blood of his foes on the battlefield"

"Interesting, any help for taking out your son?"

"Ha!"

"Stupid question?"

"Hell yes"

"I figured that would be the answer"

"You should stay here and not bother yourself with such petty things"

"Eighty six casualties in the past two years does not exactly pass as a petty thing, especially when you consider the staggering amount of people he has drove to insanity instead of killed"

"Going after my son is prompting war against all of the Arc family, and there are other weapons that act as pure aura conduits in our family, not just the sword"

"You would really kill an old friend?"

"Ancient friend. And yes, yes I would"

"I'll stick around, but after the next incident I'm beginning my hunt. Wrath will taste the blood of your son unless he stops these murders"

Laughter pours from the other side of the wall, and one figure walks away.

(POV: Anima, Location, Forever Fall)

And here we are again, doing classwork. At least killing grimm is fun. Currently we are running through the forest, and since Ruby is hungry for a challenge we were simply gathering as many grimm we can. Arriving back where we started, a web of trees less than suited for a fight, we had at least twenty all together, mine were bleeding from cuts I delivered to keep them back. I'm better at city parkour than jungle parkour, and they did occasionally get close. Meeting up had been...entertaining to say the least. Ruby activated her shadow form once we got out of the way, then her semblance, and decimated the wolf pack in under a minute, then let out a triumphant shout and vanished off into the forest, and occasionally grimm had been heard yelping in pain. Good now that my job is over, I had plans to formulate. After a good long minute the perfect revenge had popped into my brain, and the best part was I would have full deniability if it worked. If I got caught I'd probably be sent to Ozpin for a talk on conduct, but oh well. The hunt continued for another thirty minutes, I had some fun with a beowolf and his ursa friends, Yang burned an entire section down, and Blake was off on some assassin like moves. I knew she was fighting since an occasional aura usage would happen, indicating that she used a clone or blocked a hit. With the hunt done we went back to Beacon and began to change into our normal uniforms, or clean our armor in the locker rooms. I used a violet piece of dust to bend light around me, and since I can manipulate the energy of it I made it a moving cloak instead of a fixed location or haze cloud. This was the part that could get me in trouble. I used the dust to sneak into the men's room. Yes, it was awkward. Kind of arousing, but mostly just awkward. This would pay off however, or I could be reprimanded to Ozpin and find some clever way to play this off. Either way I walked over to the shower cardin was using and began leaving a small trail of single grains of ice dust. Led the trail all the way back to the hallway and activated it as I walked into the girl's room again, and upon the activation of it the sing song crap Cardin was doing abruptly stopped. It would probably take some time for them to notice I had just frozen Cardin into a statue while he was in a private shower. This is going to be great if we leave him in there. It will probably be an hour until someone notices, with any hope that is. That devilish grin covered my face again.

(New character coming in about two chapters, and we might see the first public appearance of the Vale butcher's real form. I would like to announce a poll up on my channel for a side project of my own enjoyment, and that sums up the author's note. Hope you're enjoying this story of mine)


	18. A Reminder

(POV: Jaune Arc, Location: Dorm)

What to do what to do...Well, Crocea's been fed well recently, so let's focus on none murderous things for now. Could go talk with Pyrrha, torment those two girls, what to do?

"Jaune!" And now my ears were ringing…

"Ow! Nora I'm only three feet away from you!"

"My bad~"

Ren looks over at Jaune while rubbing the back of his head and smiling. "I, uh, forgot the lock on the pantry. She got to all five bottles of maple syrup…"

Wonderful. No, really, wonderful. I can use her. "Well, at least she hasn't tried to break CRDL's legs...yet"

"Sounds like a wonderful idea!" And with that, she burst through our door and raced down the hallway, Ren is right behind her trying to stop her or maybe watch the chaos, either way that takes care of them for awhile. I then went to my locker, to make sure some things were moved out before anyone noticed them. To my delight I discovered a frozen Cardin, and so I turned the hot water to max, and the cold water off. When that ice melts he is going to get the shit burned out of him. Anyways, back to removing the magazines, maybe I'll hide them in Ren's locker...I think I will, Nora's going to have a field day with this. Now that deceptive seed number two is planted, there was something Ozpin wanted to talk to me about earlier, so might as well get this over with.

"Hello?" I open the door to his office and fake a perfect nervous sound in my voice.

"Mister Arc, please sit down"

"Ok…" I take a seat in front of Ozpin's desk and try and seem shy, like I'm in trouble. Glynda is in the room after all, even if she's being silent.

"Has Mister Winchester been giving you problems?"

""No? I mean no"

"Are you sure Arc? Many people say he's been picking on you and Velvet a lot recently, and we need some form of proof"

"Bullying? Cardin? No, no, he's been helping me study"

"And have you seen him pick on Velvet?"

"Nope"

"I see… you can leave now"

I get up and leave hurriedly, then listen in through the door once it closes.

"Seems Cardin's got him running scared, we'll have to monitor him closely if we're going to catch him"

Now that Cardin's being watched closely, I can have some fun with him, heh. Who said the villain never wins? Look who's on her way to Ozpin's.

"Oh, hey Pyrrha?"

"Yes?"

"Could you do me a huge favor?"

"Depends"

"Can you please not tell Ozpin about Cardin? I don't want him to get angrier"

"Jaune his constant bullying has to stop"

"But if he figures out about this he'll bully me more, please don't tell Ozpin"

"... Fine"

"Thanks Pyrrha"

If people could read the thoughts of my mind and see the laid out plans for Cardin, they'd call me an asshole. Heh. Moving on to other things...Where'd I put the mental list? Ah, there. Classes, training with Pyrrha, daily threat to Anima and Blake, and homework.

Onto my next class, Flora studies. Why is this even mandatory? At least I can take care of one thing on the list in here. Little wolf faunus sitting next to me is so easy to screw with since I broke a few ribs, that was on accident, but she made the mistake of seeing me clean up my sword. Can't have her blabbing, but I can't just kill a huntress, Ozpin would investigate all of Beacon, then flip it upside down and investigate the new perspective. Peach droned on and on about something to do with poisonous fruits, so I drew a picture for the wolf next to me and slid it to her.

(POV:Anima)

Oh god, Flora studies again. I have to sit by Jaune since all other seats are taken, I'm surprised no one can feel the dread in my mind, maybe it's due to the fact we have no telepathic people here. Just gotta pay attention to the lesson on Alvan trees and ignore the person next to me. He hasn't delivered a daily 'reminder' yet, so I'm a bit on edge, that's when he slid a picture to me. It had Blake in the ground covered in open cuts and stab wounds, me shoveling dirt onto her, and him holding his sword against my neck, and the tombstone read Silence is golden. I resisted the urge to jump out of my chair, then the urge to attack Jaune. He was quite a good drawer, I mean this almost looked real. And that was the scary part. I can't wait until this class ends…

"SON OF A BITCH!" Huh?

"IT FUCKING BURNS!" Umm…

"Sounds like it's coming from the locker rooms" Someone comments from the back, and I repress a smile, and I see Jaune doing the same, which was a bit unsettling. What the hell did he do to Cardin?

"MOTHER FUCKING, GODDAMN IT BURNS IT FUCKING BURNS" Something to do with the hot water I suppose, which would be worse given his body had adapted to the ice I froze him in...so Jaune is a devious bitch...I think I'm even more afraid of him.

Finally a good class, Combat training. Goodwitch gets ready to announce today's fight, so I've moved onto the rafters since she won't let me fight because of my ribs not having fully healed.

"Today's fight will be between…" The monitors start scrolling through pictures of the students, falling on two individuals.

"Yang Xiao Long, and Sky Lark"

This will be over quickly,I won't even have time to get popcorn…

Sky looks nervous, he should be. Standing across from him is a pissed off blonde surrounded by sparks of fire, with eyes of a blood crimson. I don't know what's got her so pissed already, but it seems to be related to Sky. He takes his halberd in both hands and is shaking a bit.

"Fight"

Yang rushes out to him and he raises the shaft to block her punch, but she switches to an uppercut, the force sending him up into the air and the weapon out of his hands.

"This is for one of my friends you keep picking on" Sky gets up and turns to run but a shotgun shell peppers his back and he falls back down, Yang walking over with every muscle standing at attention. I've seen her fight serious before but this is ridiculously scary. He rolls Sky over and pulls him up by his collar.

"This" Her shell switches over to explosives, and I feel a chill of excitement rush up my spine as I hear that clicking sound that comes with the ammo change.

"Is for Velvet Scarlatina" So they're really more like acquaintances, but I suppose this is Yang's version of saying stop your shit. She tosses him up and delivers one last fist into his chest, and fires the explosive round, catapulting him into the wall, through the wall, and into the hallway. His aura was at one percent, and according to a quick medical check by one of our aura healers showed two fractured ribs and the rest were all bruised. Nice shot, but she was holding back, or she'd broken and shattered them into dust like fragments.

"And that sums up today's fight, good day students"

And the sun was just starting to set, we finished early. Anyways...on to more important things.


	19. Preparations

(POV: James Calria. Location: Atlas)

"So, you think I don't stand a chance Mr. Arc?"

"For a man in his eighties, no"

"Well, watch me"

Out of the room marches a man who looks like he could pass for thirty, wearing a navy blue business suite topped with a fedora and two solid white eyes. That's me, and god am I glad to be done in this bureaucratic hell hole of a kingdom. Then again, I might not survive where I'm going, so let's see, what to do to kill time before the bullhead arrives? Well, the combat arena is still open, no, gotta keep my bones unbroken. I walk calmly into the elevator, then it hits me, I should read up on the target before I do anything rash. Thirty minutes later and I'm watching the snow fall and wearing some type of winter jacket I found in the lobby. Note to self, bring more than one set of winter clothes incase you get robbed.

"Is that a siren?" I say to no one in particular, then I take a look to my left, and see a speeding car with the white fang logo shooting at an Atlas police vehicle. Just what I need…

"Well, I've got time" I pull out a small light grey triangle from my back pocket and push the small button on it, and it unfolds into Silver Light, my sniper rifle, and without any real effort I shoot out one of the White Fang car's tires, and leave them to the police after they clip a pole and go into a wall. Dumbasses. Anyways, library.

"Excuse me sir, where could I find a library?"

"Down on Eighty seventh street is the largest library in the kingdom"

"Thanks buddy"

"Your we- hey that's my car!"

Heh, civilian troubles.

"Sir you can't park there" The driver of a tow truck announced as he toed my buddy's car away.

Anyways, off to the library. Large ass place, fucking huge. Size of a football stadium. Guess this is meant to house enough books for the entire city. And there's a robot checking out books. Great. I fucking hate robots.

"Hello Sir, Welcome to the Atlas Grand library. May I assist you?"

"Do you have any books on a weapon called Crocea Mors?"

"We have four books referring 'Crocea Mors'. Two are located in the mythology wing, One book is 'The Blades of Legend' It is vaguely referenced in the second book 'Heros of the Great War'. A third book located in the non fiction setting, 'Warriors of Remnant, the Arc Family legacy' also contains vague references to the weapon"

"Got it, have a nice day" I fucking hate that synthetic voice, but it was helpful. 'The Blades of Legend' Talked about a weapon which changes form to fit it's master perfectly, known as Crocea Mors. So maybe the sword isn't the greatsword I knew from the war anymore. It also mentions the sword bonds with it's owner, and can cause random headaches, chest pains, and other minor issues, and can eventually progress into full blown insanity, followed by hemorrhaging of all of the internal organs. How this occurs is unknown, but has only been recorded causing such issues at three times, the Arc family, the bearers of this blade, believe this is a rare occurrence. The sword conveys aura and amplifies it's power exponentially. When near it's owner it still boosts their aura levels, but not as great as when it is held.

So the Arc boy has a sword capable of increasing his aura levels, and according to his file at Beacon he has an already impressively large amount of aura. Why can't anything be simple?

The other two books mentioned it as the weapon cursed to the Arc family, and the blade wielded by Siberius Arc, who died in that war as a martyr. If only they knew the truth behind how and why he died. Anyways, I'm done here. And still time to kill. I'll kill time at the firing range until it shows up then, I missed the mark on that tire by a milimeter, I'm getting rusty.

Two fucking hours…

"Two fucking hours" I say to the pilot, who was two hours late. I don't like him already.

"Sorry, I had to deal with a flock of nevermores, had to repair an engine, and someone at the check in station knocked over a cup of coffee while they were checking me in"

"What's your name?"

"Kevin. I handle most private travels to and from Vale"

"Ok, how long till we get there?"

"Five days, three and a half if I floor it"

"Floor it"

"Understood, control this is crow zero one, I'll see you guys later"

"You are cleared for take off zero one" The radio crackled, and with the knowledge I would be leaving Atlas I was quite happy. Maybe if I lived through this I'll retire back to my home in Mistral. It's a lot better than Atlas in my opinion, but that could be any number fo things, the fact robots are basically grimm on a leash in my eyes, the fact Mistral has a lack of said robots, maybe the fact I grew up there, who knows? Not important, need to quit getting distracted.


	20. Direct Measures

Almost there. One hour left. The endless waiting, the calm before the storm. Even my gun is restless. The small moments of reprieve before you start a near suicidal run, that's what gets me. I can deal with blood loss, amputations, won't be the first prosthetic thing I've acquired, hell death doesn't even scare me, but the peace, the way the seconds stretch for hours, it's like hell. I let my sniper fully extend, the light glinting off the barrel, and I slide in a new magazine and eject the bullet from the chamber, eject the clip, add the bullet in, put the clip back. This continued like a ritual for the remainder of the hour.

"We're arriving at Beacon now"

"Thank's for the ride, I'll give my thanks to Ozpin"

(POV: Anima, Location, Dorm. Thirty minutes later…)

"So, Ruby Rose, You just conquered the world of Remnant, what's next?" Yang asks with her best reporter voice. She had just used the kingdom of Atlas to dominate the rest of us.

"I will eat all the world's cookies!"

"Such an ambitious queen"

"Cookies!"

"All hail the new queen"

Blake cheers along with me and Yang, though we were rudely interrupted by an explosion near JNPR's Room, and for once I prayed someone gave Nora sugar, but are we ever that lucky?

"Shit, what was that?"

"Nora?"

"Yang stop cussing!"

"Shh"

"Let's leave it alone, probably just No-" And then three shots from what sounded like a rifle. Not like Pyrrha's rifle, but a full blown punching holes in people sniper. We ran out to take a look and discovered Ozpin sipping his coffee, and Jaune was bleeding. From outside a hole in their dorm room wall a sniper had unleashed hell, and hit Jaune three times in the chest. Pyrrha and Ren were out of the window, then binded to a wall by Glynda's telekinesis semblance, and Nora actually had no reaction, and just continued building some type of house of cards, which was huge yet remained intact. It scares me, the way the world's laws seem to bend around Nora, but it's something we all live with. Anyways, back to reality. Blake and I take positions by Ozpin, looking like sentinels.

"You sold me out huh…" Oh no, the bleeding has already stopped and he has his sword in his hands…

"No, I did" The sniper is now standing in the hole that was once a wall, and Ozpin was looking calm as ever. Then the rest of my team came, Yang punching the man out of the window, she was being propelled by Ruby's semblance in a team effort.

"DAMN IT"

They looked at me oddly, then Jaune sprang up and slashed at Yang, her reflexes leading to just a scratch up the arm, but her eyes went wide with confusion and some fear. Jaune proceeded to kick the confused reaper into the ground and jumped out the window.

"Shit Yang!" I rush over to her and look at her arm, which was relatively ok.

"W, why did he..."

"STOP HIM" Glynda shouted, releasing Ren and Pyrrha to try and capture Jaune, and they stayed on the ground in silence, confused. Nora jumped down and landed next to them, and carried them each up into the building. Outside bullets and magic filled the air, but one command stopped the fight.

"You guys just love forcing my hand huh?" Jaune had been weaving between some of the slower spells, but was just taking the rest of the fire, shrugging it off. "Well, I don't plan on sticking around" He smiles widely, and in front of his team, my team, Ozpin, everyone present at the Beacon dorm area, as many were now watching out their window, he uttered one word and vanished, though he certainly left a mark.

"Scatter" And he was gone, wind rushing from where he was, cracking the ground. Luckily Glynda and the sniper were out of range

In a few minutes we were all assembled in the main hall for a meeting on what the hell just happened. Ozpin addressed the crowd.

"You all probably have many questions-"

"Yes, we do, what the hell was up with Jaune?" Yang's eyes were already crimson and no one stood near her due to the sparks igniting the air every couple of seconds.

"Well Mi-" Another interruption, this time from the most unlikely source. Nora. She managed to move the entire card house to the room and onto a table without messing it up, or she rebuilt it without me noticing till she was exactly where she left off.

"Obviously it's because Jaune is a murderer who kills everyone in his path to keep his sword from killing him but he has fallen addicted to said blood lust as the sword shares a bond with him. He's been putting up this act for years that he was a weak nobody when he really outclasses everyone here, save Ozpin. Jaune is the single most deadly villain in Vale, I thought you guys knew"

"How do you know?!" Literally everyone present, yelled.

"C'mon guys, really? That's so simple even Nora could have figured that one out in a week or two. Speaking of which my time is nearly up, so any last minute questions?"

"Umm...Who are you?" Yang actually looks afraid and sounds afraid, as probably everyone in the room is right now.

"Oh, I'm Alys, oh, well gotta go" Nora, Alys, whoever the hell that was blinked and studied the room.

"Ren?"

"Welcome back"

"Can I go lie down now?" She lawned very loudly and he nodded and led her out of the room.

"So...Nora apparently has multiple personalities...Jaune is a sword wielding butcher who fooled us all...who is he?" Blake points to the man wearing the military spec ops gear relative to Mistral, save the kingdom's symbol being ripped off the shoulders and the camo theme being a digital red instead of the usual green. Looked more like Vacuo gear to me, but the setup of how the magazines were strapped to the shoulders and forearms as well as on a belt around the waist so they could carry more ammo or sacrifice it for armor in desperate times was the main give away.

"My name is James Calria"

"He's an old war buddy of Ozpin's" Glynda said.

"Ozpin, you went to war?"

"The great war actually"

"How are you still alive?"

"A lot of aura being infused into my vital cells to keep original copies from decaying"

"And him?"

"By this point I'm more machine than man. It's nice to meet you kids, but I have a job to do" He turns around and jumps out of the window, followed by Ozpin.

"You kids stay put, we'll be back"


	21. Fragile Mind

"So…"

No response. My team and team JNPR haven't said a word since Ozpin left. We knew where everyone stood on the matter due to a recent argument. Ren thinks Jaune needs to be imprisoned. Pyrrha refuses to believe any of this, Nora seems to be turning a blind eye to it, Ruby is pissed at him for cutting Yang, and Yang is shocked and is the only one who didn't take part in the argument we had. Blake and I are both ready to help put Jaune down.

We'd been waiting for about an hour since Ozpin and James left, not even a gunshot has been heard.

"Well, this is depressing" Nora utters as she searches for the last bottle of maple syrup.

"What do you expect?" Pyrrha mutters halfheartedly.

"So… I'm a faunus" Blake says trying to change the subject, but none of the three look up.

"Talk about a tough crowd" I whisper to her.

"It does make sense…" Ren says, trying to keep Pyrrha from hearing this, but she did.

"It doesn't! This has to be some sort of nightmare. The person we've trusted to lead us, the person I…" She choked up a bit and it clicked in my head about why this was affecting her to this extent. She had a crush on the dorky side of him, and can't wrap her head around the fact he's an unrepentant murderer.

"You think they got him yet?"

"..." Pyrrha starts crying as silently as she could, only a sniffle really drawing attention. We all gave her space, moving back. Only Yang stayed still, staring at the wall in front of her with those widened and horrified eyes. I don't think anyone had expected this reaction from her. Maybe from Blake, though they didn't know about our preview show of his dark side.

Several hours later the moon has started rising, and Yang's lost that expression but still hasn't said a word. Pyrrha's a bit better, but her condition's highly fragile. Everyone else as trying to get some sleep, save Nora, Blake, and me. I'm guessing Nora changed personalities again, she's building another elaborate house of cards and I'm catching some snippets from her about dust theory, not the basic stuff but like, power application, how dust makes an airship fly, how it powers devices. The mere thought that one personality in her head has this kind of knowledge is terrifying.

"So, think this will have a happy ending?" Blake finally asks.

"It's always said white clouds aren't always silver lined"

"So that's a no?"

"Yeah, that's a no. I got a feeling we're all going to be affected by this permanently, some of us already have"

"...Think he got them?"

"No, we'd have heard something, that sniper isn't exactly quiet, and if Jaune is the murderer I think he is, then the fight wouldn't be subtle, plus Ozpin must have a ridiculous amount of aura to keep himself looking young compared to his age"

"Or he's gotten good at it"

"Or both"

"Hey, can we go to sleep now? Today's been stressful as hell"

"C'mere kitty" She smiles and lays down on my lap, so I stroke her ears as usual, staring out the hole in the wall, trying not to look at our resident gladiator, reduced to a fragile glass pane.

(POV: Jaune Arc. Three Days Later. Whereabouts Unknown)

Persistent fucks, chasing me this far. Can't risk a direct fight with Ozpin and that sniper asshole together, maybe one on one, but that doesn't seem to be an option. They've chased me all the way to the coast. I'm running on fumes here and my sword's starting to get hungry. I can feel it creeping in on me, a warning that if I can't feed it, it can and will kill me off. I think I'm starting to lose them, Crocea isn't picking up on their aura anymore, so they are at least forty meters away, how far behind after that is just guess work. There's a town up ahead, I'll stop in and hide, see if they pass by after a day or two. Ozpin should be heading back soon anyways to keep Beacon together...wait, I can spot them but they can't spot me, so maybe I should loop back and tie up some loose ends at Beacon, no, not with all those professors. I might be able to take them on one at a time, but a group effort would be a dangerous undertaking. Guess it's lay low and strike at them later.

Two more days pass, they must have turned back by now, and I'm starting to get minor headaches at random times throughout the day. Need to feed it soon or it might start to feed off me...it's not a pleasant experience from what I've heard. I'll just wait another day, then storm the closest village, or maybe I'll come across some grimm. They aren't as sustaining as people, but it still works. Speaking of grimm, I think I hear a pack of beowolves...time to feast.


	22. Gaining a Pawn

Meanwhile, back at Beacon everything was going...'great'. Pyrrha hasn't had a breakdown. Nora hasn't broken anyone's legs. Yang was talking and acting like she usually does, granted she is more paranoid of strangers now. Guess she doesn't want to make a friend and take the chance of getting betrayed. Ren seems virtually unaffected by all this, Ruby is calling for blood since he cut Yang, though is being quiet around Pyrrha. Who would have guessed she was protective of Yang? Blake's attempted to track down information about Jaune, his past, and his family's past. It's been pretty tough on her, she hardly takes a break unless I force her to. She's practically run herself ragged. I've been spending the past couple of days trying to perfect the purple lightning dust, but it's quite difficult. I mean sure it works but sometimes the power is distributed wrong in larger clouds, creating safe pockets at random, or sometimes the lightning extends past the cloud and is fully uncontrollable, and we can't have that now can we?

"God dammit!" I yell as the lightning strikes out from the cloud again, and for some reason travels the length of the training room just to hit me on the other side.

"Alright, calm down Anima, you've cursed god enough today" Yang smiles at me.

"Really?"

"Twenty seven times exactly" Ren says from over at the hand to hand sparring ring, he's been going against Pyrrha for the past two hours, after each round they take about five minutes to rest, then charge right back into it. Gotta relieve stress somehow.

"So, where's Blake and Ruby?"

"Ruby's doing maintenance on our weapons while Blake is, as you can guess, searching for information. Didn't you notice your gauntlets were missing?"

"I hadn't went to get them yet"

"So if we got attacked you were going to punch your way out?"

"And You?"

"I've got dust and a mask"

"True. So, bet Ren wins this round"

"I got fifty on Nora"

"Deal, I guess I win since Nora's not here"

"If only you had my hearing"

In the space of a minute the song voice of Nora Valkyrie was within human hearing, I could tell cause Yang looked shocked. Nora burst through the door, surprising all present but me, and punched Ren in his side, then dropped an elbow onto the back of his head.

"Ow!"

"You lied about cooking the pancakes!"

"I got carried away fighting Pyrrha"

Nora swivels her head towards Pyrrha, looking like a villain right out of a movie, and dashes at her, dodges a punch, and retaliates with a knee strike, then a backhand.

"Your all done fighting now!" She cheers as Pyrrha's unconscious body hits the ground, then she drags Ren out of the room.

"...Holy shit"

"Did she just knock out Pyrrha Nikos, the gladiator, with two hits?"

"Well...I have another reason to fear Nora now"

"I'm gonna go check up on Ruby, see ya"

"Bye"

So, let's go visit Blake.

She's in the library, in her usual spot, except instead of reading a book, she's digging up information about the Arc family and their associates. She's got nothing yet, which has left her very agitated. I approached her as stealthfully as I could.

"I can smell you" She sounds exhausted.

"Hi"

"Hey"

"You uh, find anything useful yet?"

"...Not anything related to Jaune, or where he might go to hide, though the family itself has been the speculation of a number of murder cases, though a lack of evidence has left the charges dropped each time"

"That's interesting, did you sleep last night?"

"...Yeah…"

"Blake Belladonna."

"No…"

"Your getting some sleep now"

"But I have to keep searching, what if he kills again?"

"What if he strikes here?"

"Then we'll have to stop him!"

"Can you honestly do that, or would you just be a liability and hold us back?" I think I struck more than a few nerves with that one, her face was one of shock, that quickly faded to anger.

"What do you mean a liability?" She stood up and I simply pushed her back down.

"Hey!"

"C'mon, get up"

She kept trying to stand up, so I kept pushing her down until eventually she gave up, and looked extremely pissed.

"You proved your point, now just go away…"

"You march yourself upstairs and get some sleep. I'm not going to let you destroy yourself over something like this"

"Not until I'm do-" I can't let this continue, so I knocked her out using a technique of aura control Ren taught me, for self defense incase Nora tries to kill me. Of course after this she'll kick my ass. Anyways I have a plan for her, call it revenge if you wish…

A few hours later she came to, I had escorted her from the library to her bed, and was jamming out to some music on Ruby's scroll.

"Uhn, my head…"

"Your finally awake"

"You dick"

I smiled and climbed onto her, unafraid of getting hit since I used her ribbons to tie her down like she did me at the hospital.

"Shh, you need some sleep"

"But-"

I silenced her with my finger and kissed her cheek. "Go to sleep, we need you at full strength, not this"

"Bu-"

"One more word and I will bite you" To enforce my point I delicately pressed my fangs against her skin.

"..." Yay, my threat worked. And I really will bite her if she says another word. Feeling like I got my point across I nuzzled her, a few minutes later however she asked how long I plan on keeping her tied down,so without any hint of hesitation I bit down, probably harder than I meant to, but hey, wolf instincts say hunt the cat. She yelped and shut up, so I went back to relaxing on her, until eventually silence overtook the room completely, and we fell asleep. I completed the objective, getting her to go to sleep, though now I need to pick a scarf out for her.

(Meanwhile, In the village of Beo Pines, a forest village known for an overwhelmingly annoying beowolf population…)

Well, I've had a stroke of luck finding this place, I can keep the murder count low for awhile, and the villagers chalk up anyone who left and never came back as being devoured by the grimm, they have no idea I've been butchering their friends, but uh, I'm starting to get hungry, so let's test out a theory…

"Hey, I need help!" I've injured my leg, let a beowolf take a swipe at it, had one ursa assault me until my armor was broken up, then I killed both of them and had limped to the village edge…

"Are you alright?"

"I uh, got in a bit of a scrape, ow, I could use some food, maybe a bandage, or two"

"Hold on a minute, I'll get the gate open, guards take up positions!"

At his orders a few people moved into the watch towers that flanked the wooden walls, and aimed guns towards the forest, must be standard procedure since the beowolves could just run in here at any time. The man opened the gate and I got a good view of him, a military outfit, blue in nature, maybe signifying his rank as the others were wearing red. He seems quite old, but then again so is Ozpin. I limp in through the door, and immediately a nurse sees to me and takes me to a wooden lodge outfitted to be a hospital. The sign on the door said light treatment center.

"Can I get your name down for reference?" She asked as I limped over and laid down on the bed.

"My name is William Fox"

"Ok, and can you tell me about your medical history?"

One long list of lies later…

"And there you go, your all bandaged up, it should heal soon, try not to stress it out"

The moment the nurse leaves I heal it with my aura in a few seconds. A few minutes later a wonderful thing happened.

"Hey, may I come in?" Some guy outside my door wants in, what could possibly go wrong?

"Sure"

To my surprise, and immediate terror, a capable looking person walks in. A dark skinned individual wearing a leather duster, a bandana covering his mouth, and a pair of black sunglasses. He sat down across from me.

"Hello Jaune"

Full panic mode initiated. I reached for my sword, when he raised his hands up in surrender.

"No need to kill an ally"

"Who the hell are you?"

"Someone who owes their live to the Arc family. So, consider me a friend and ally"

"What's your name?"

"Cyrus"

"Well Cyrus, I think I can handle myself"

"Against Ozpin and James?"

"So that's his name, but wait, how the fuck do you know?"

"I've been watching you for the past few days. Your father told me to be on the lookout for a man trying to kill you. He also said I'm to follow your commands"

"Well then, I think we're going to get along well. If anyone asks my name is William, got it?"

"Got it. And don't worry about me slowing you down or being rubbish in a fight, I can handle myself quite well"

"We'll see about that"


	23. Final Preparations

"So, impress me" I took Cyrus out to a grimm nest, filled with much more than beowolves and turned him loose, just to watch the carnage.

"I won't disappoint" He slides his hands into the pockets on his duster, and they come out with brass knuckles on them, a line of white across them, and a two inch blade jutting out from the ends of each, so if you dodge the punch you might get cut anyways. I've noticed that when I get a glimpse into the sleeves of his duster there's multiple lines of colors, I bet he wove dust crystals into the fabric. A nasty surprise for any unsuspecting opponent. And who knows what types he's combined or his efficiency with combinations. After this demonstration I'll have a better guess at his abilities.

"Would you like me to overkill them, or just the necessary force?"

"The second one"

He walked into the nest, more or less just a gathering ground. Inside this little jagged clearing with the occasional still standing tree is about ten ursa, fifteen beowolves, and for the queen of the nest, a giant Taijutsu snake and accompanying guards, the guards being two young, hardly armored, deathstalkers. Nest must be a few years old. The snake hisses at him and the beowolves pounce, so he begins knocking them away, the white line across his weapons appear to be white dust crystals, boosting his punches and turning the beowolves into flying ragdolls. One unfortunate wolf died from blood loss after jumping over a punch but catching the blade in it's throat, and the momentum of the wolf and the sharpness of the blade led to a full body vertical slice, spilling what was believed to be it's guts before they evaporated in a quick blast of fire from Cyrus, which knocked down a charging ursa, who had attempted to hit him. Now they were in his attention. With several combinations of punches he eliminated them, then he turned and faced the deathstalkers, his punches shattering their bone plates, and he ended each with stab to their faces. When the Taijutsu lunged at him he activated the dust, a jet of fire raging out from his sleeves, being separated from his skin by aura. The snake veered away at the hit of the fire and it drove itself into the ground. Then he punched it in the back of the head, an aura infused punch as indicated by my scroll. Probably tore up it's throat from the inside. The second head then lunged and he jumped up and rolled across it, then he delivered the same type of blow to it and it fell, unmoving.

"I'm done"

"Nice job"

"Will I be of use sir?"

"I think you will, but I'll need more than one pawn for the things I have planned for Beacon"

"I can arrange for another to join us, he's highly secretive though, so we might not actually meet him, more of him watching over us"

"Well, I think I can deal with that"

"Would you like me to clear the village sir?"

"Yes, but bring me one. I want Crocea to be well fed before we depart"

"Understood"

(POV: Anima, Location, Dorm Room. Five days later)

"I doubt anyone will notice"

"You doubt that they will notice the fact I now wear a black scarf"

"Well when you put it that way…"

"I can't believe you bit me"

"It's not that bad"

"There are imprints of your teeth!"

"How would they know it was me?"

"Who always hangs around me and kisses me on the cheek?"

"Me…"

"So who's the first suspect when I have a bite on my neck?"

"Me… I did tell you to be quiet"

"Don't even"

"Let's just go to class, It'll be fine"

"Fine, but in the future try and bite lower so I can hide it easier"

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you liked me biting you"

And with that she blushed a bit and left. I think I got it right. Also I'm getting the feeling she's going to strangle me later. On a less sexy note, Ozpin's back with that soldier guy, who's now keeping watch from the top of Ozpin's tower, so I no longer get to sleep up there. Pyrrha's been getting better, but now spends a good seventy percent of her free time in the training room. I also figured out why Nora seems to defy logic. Ren's explanation is that her semblance is spacial manipulation, allowing her to bend certain rules of physics. From a logical standpoint that sounds crazy, but it seems to fit. She did carry a house of cards down a hallway and across the yard to the atrium without dropping a single card, and shoot what seemed to be a near infinite number of grenades during the tournament. I'm kind of scared to see what else she can use it for. Anyway, class time with Port again, and another field trip. We're going to observe a grimm nest, but engaging the grimm is not allowed. Just an observation. Good enough for me, I can size up that snake, see if it's worth the effort to consume a taijutsu's aura

We went to the nest near Beo Pines since it was one of the few where all the grimm were outside instead of in some underground area, but after a few hours of air travel we arrived at an empty nest. Port was confused as all hell and left to check in with the town. He returned very fast and took us all back to Beacon then left us in Glynda's care while he went to discuss something with Ozpin. I'm having a very bad feeling about this.

(POV: Jaune, Whereabouts unknown)

"Jaune, I put a tracker on the vehicle"

"Good work, now hack into their systems and get team RYBN a mission at these coordinates, make it a week from now so I can finish preparations"

This new guy is wonderful, mysterious as fuck but wonderful. He's a decent servant, hacking and sniping anything I want him to, but he refuses to show himself to anyone.

"Understood Sir, I'll get right on that"

"Oh payback's a bitch you annoying mutt, and I'll enjoy every bit of it"

I spent the rest of that day laying the groundwork for my plan, and sharpening Crocea on the leftover bones from it's last human meal. Cyrus was also pretty good. Decent fighter, loyal, and I think he could take Yang on without much difficulty, so revenge will be swift and brutal. One week. Then I will end your meager existence.


	24. A Game

"I take it you've heard the news from Vale"

Three figures sat around a table, playing a game of Remnant. The lighting was purely focused on the board, keeping the players in the shadows.

"Of course, since Jaune went to school there we've monitored Vale carefully" The older one of the three says as he places a card down. Every kingdom but Vale was being used, which sat alone, a figurine of a decrepit Beacon rested on it.

"That old war hero is going to pay" The second oldest said, his voice lacked a motivation of revenge, like he was simply stating truth and had no interest in the matter.

"Plans are in motion"

"I suppose my brother is plotting revenge now" The youngest said, as he sent a single soldier card after all of Atlas, just for the elder to take it.

"That was a careless move son"

"Not quite" He flipped over a trap card, revealing that soldier was outfitted with a hidden bomb, and it led to the loss of the elder's army.

"Interesting strategy" The second oldest passes his turn.

"Some pieces have to be sacrificed to gain a foothold for the rest. I hear Cyrus has made contact with him"

"That mask of his was quite creepy"

"The people Jaune wants to kill have a similar person. It evens the odds"

"And the sniper, what's his name again?"

"Arthur, right?"

"Andrew"

"Close enough"

"It's still three against four" Two Mistral Bullhead figurines are placed down by the second oldest, followed by another card. The elder removes two platoons from the outside area, shielding them inside Atlas, while the younger merely plopped down two anti air turrets, then smiled.

"So, you offer me the chance to decimate your ground, in exchange for the chance of destroying my air...I'll risk it"

The air defense did activate, and the youngest smiled wider, then played two artillery cards, and a grimm card, the beo horde. Mistral was overrun in the next two turns, while the elder merely waited, fortifying his army.

"Think they'll kill him?" The elder says, slight worry in his voice, as he sends out his armies towards Vacuo, in the final assault.

"Possibly, though we cannot interfere. Like I said earlier, sometimes a piece must be sacrificed father" The trap cards the younger possessed easily decimated all of the Atlas forces, and he marched in next turn, securing the city in one move.

"You certainly are different from your brother. I suppose since Crocea needs to be fed it is only natural the wielder becomes progressively more murderous"

The second then spoke up. "There were significantly less casualty reports last year, did something about the sword change?"

"Not at all. Crocea's feeding requires only one gallon per month, however the longer the sword his held, the more the wielder seeks more blood, believing the sword is still hungry. Crocea's terrible secret. Jaune must have just thought the sword was hungry less often"

"Have you ever tried to get rid of it?"

"Of course"

The younger then interjected. "What prevents it from being destroyed?"

"It simply reforges itself and bonds with the next host it chooses, which must come from the bloodline of the original person who discovered it. There is no way to discard this thing save killing every Arc on the planet, then the next person to discover it would have the same issue. Understand?"

"Not quite, but it will do for now"

"Since our game is over how about a round or two in the fencing room?"

"Sure"

"Why not"

(POV: Anima, location, Beacon Hallways)

Well Blake did get me back, not with the strangling I anticipated, but simply by signing me up with a match against both Ren and Pyrrha, with no weapons. Faunus agility and strength advantages can only get you so far against two people who have spent about a week doing this, one of whom is a professional martial arts fighter. I remember three parts clearly, when I walked in with that 'this won't end well' feeling, the final few blows of Ren dodging one of my punches, and twisting my other arm behind my back followed by a few hits from Pyrrha, then a combination of Ren moving to my left, Pyrrha sweeping my legs out so I fell towards him, and a very powerful kick from Ren that would have probably shattered the jaw of anyone without aura to soften the blow some. And after that all of us, including the non present members of both teams were called into Glynda's office.

"Blake I'm going to get you"

"For what?"

"I know what your handwriting looks like"

"You kinda deserved it"

"I know"

"Why is Blake wearing a scarf?"

"She's been wearing it for awhile now Nora"

"Yeah, why are you wearing a scarf Blake?" Yang said that kind of seductively, I think she knows.

"I was feeling kind of cold" That excuse won't work...

"Really?" Nora crept up on her.

"Then you wouldn't mind me borrowing it, right?" Yang asked, teaming up on blake with Nora.

"It's cold, I'm keeping the scarf" And in one quick move Yang relieved her of the scarf, allowing everyone to see the blushing girl sporting a mark on her neck...busted. I felt a bit guilty.

"Umm…" Ruby was confused, Yang was sneering a bit, Nora was curious on who put it there, naming off every student she knew at record pace, Pyrrha laughed just a little bit, and I calmly disappeared behind Ren. He looked at me suspiciously, but kept quiet, and when Nora had finished her naming list, Yang stopped in front of her and looked her right in the eye.

"So, who was it?"

"Not telling"

"C'mon, what's the worst that could happen?"

"You telling everyone" She stated seriously, so Yang replied with an equally serious voice.

"Tell me, and I won't mention any of this at all"

Blake whispered it to her and I saw Yang frown, then slip a pretty decent sized amount of Lien to Ren, who I was no longer using as a shield.

"So, uh, were you attacked by a cannibal or something?" ...For Yang's sister, Ruby is quite clueless.

"I'll tell you when your older sis"

"So it's something sexual?"

"It wasn't like that!" Blake blurted out, and looked over at me. So my choices now are, confess and say what happened, or face the wrath of a cat. Well, cat's can be pretty vicious…

"Of course it was, why else would someone bite you, unless it really was a cannibal!"

"Yeah, uh, it might have been my fault" And now all eyes are on me.

"I was trying to get her to sleep, but she kept talking, so I bit her to make her be quiet"

"And it hurt"

"I told you I would"

"I thought you were bluffing!"

"I wasn't"

"Well I know that now"

A round of snickers and laughs from all but Ren, who just smiles politely, but I've learned thats his way of laughing.

We were moments away from Goodwitch's room, when she came back over the intercom, demanding we hurry up.

"Can we go now?" Said Pyrrha, whose patience was running out quickly.

"Yes ma'am" Nora said, then kicked in the door. No subtlety from her...


	25. Arc Manor

(Location: Arc Manor and Estates, Atlas)

"Good parry. I seem to be mistaken about your skills"

"Indeed" The two men fencing have the lighting ll focused on them, the spectating boy shrouded out.

"Well, you two seem to be having fun, shall I see myself out?"

"If you wish"

The two men from before continue their fencing while the youngest leaves the room.

"Do you honestly think your son has a chance?"

"He's smart and powerful, but far too ambitious. And with the killing intent Crocea has warped into his brain if he survives the small job he's going into he might take off after Beacon itself. Ozpin is no pushover, Jaune will have a decent chance, unless Ozpin has backup, and given Beacon is an entire school of skilled hunters, he'll probably die"

While outside the room…

"That is troublesome to hear…" The youngest walks down the hallway by numerous doors and into a foyer area. He seems to be in a very large manor, with enough space to donate several rooms to individual people. The hallways and foyer are very ordinate with guards posted at each door. They carry various weapons, some standard issue, and others very exotic. In the hallway lighting he can be seen. His hair is short and blonde, slicked down, His eyes are multicolored, heterochromia. One eye is green and for some reason seems very sinister, while the other is blue, and seems kind. Due to this telling his intent by his eyes is quite impossible. He is currently wearing a button up suite with a blue and red tie.

"Alison, is anyone present in the boxing room?" He says to a guard in full ballistic proof armor, leaving no visible characteristics.

"Yes sir. Martin and Xena are currently fighting each other. Alistair is watching them"

"Good, I needed to have a few words with him"

The boy went into the room and over to a similarly dressed man, save the tie being solid black.

"Ah, Master Carsten"

"Alistair, tell me you have good news about the Vacuo situation?"

"Indeed I do, The strike has been resolved most peacefully"

"Most?"

"One protester did try to burn the factory down, we suspect he was on drugs at the time given his lack of coordination. He accidentally set fire to himself while creating a gas trail to one of the storage areas"

"I swear, even the strikers are incompetent. I trust the other issue has been taken care of?"

"Other?"

"The White Fang"

"I was unaware your father had told about it. Yes it has, though I have no clue why they would attack us"

"Do we have any faunus working there?"

"Of course"

"And do we pay them the same wages as humans?"

"We do"

"So now they want their kind paid more than the other workers. I will not stand for such actions Alistair"

"They said it was only one member who was undercut payment, and they want his raise tripled for the next month"

"Did you do so?"

"Of course not. We sent Martin and Xena to go resolve the dispute, and then punish the employer who undercut the faunus"

"Where is he now?"

"They gave him over to the White Fang. It satisfied them"

"Sometimes a piece must be sacrificed" The boy had a smile that went well with his green eye.

"Quite a cruel strategy"

"But often a necessary one"

"We also have news from your brother, he's prepared a special trap for the people he wanted to kill"

"Go on"

"He had some grimm requested from our breeding pins, as you can imagine Doctor Madison was quite furious"

"Which ones did he take?"

"Two neatuls, three creeps and a harvester. Each was in their second term of age according to Madison"

"A harvester? Just one out of the million?"

"Yes. He took the third oldest one, and since taking any more of Madison's pets would tip her over the edge he left"

"The doctor, what work is she doing now?"

"Well, she's done mapping the anatomy of the death stalkers, and is currently developing a cure for their poison. Personally I wish we didn't devote so many resources to her cause, the amount of grimm currently on the premise is significantly higher than I am comfortable with"

"They make great training dummies"

"I hardly think Madison would stand for such"

"It depends on if you make yourself useful to her research"

"I'll keep that in mind"

"Excuse me!"

A lady with blonde hair with occasional strands dyed blue and red bursts in, she's wearing a lab coat and holding what appears to be a blend between a medieval mace and a handheld taser.

"Has anyone seen a baby death stalker?"

"No"

"All I want to do is harvest some venom! Find it now!"

"Did she just order us to-"

"Yes, she has that kind of authority"

"I think I'm at a loss for words"

In the distance someone screams, and the rest of the room, save the two boxers, leaps into action, well in Alistair's case it was get up and jog. At the source of the scream was one of the cooks. He was currently cowering behind a desk while a scorpion the size of an adult human's knee was crawling around and on a brick oven.

"Subdue the specimen!"

"No way in hell am I touching that!" The cook screamed, so I walked over to it calmly.

"Hey buddy. Stop moving" I flared my aura a bit to scare it, and it lunged at me. And then got batted by Madison's mace. I always enjoyed watching things get hit by that mace. So did Jaune for the few short days both he and Madison were on the estate grounds.

"Someone hold it down!" With what seemed to be a learned response the scorpionish monster lashed out at the closest person moving, which was young Carsten. Who valiantly, and elegantly, tackled the thing to the ground and restrained it singlehandedly. Not bad for a rich man's son.

"I've got this from here"Madison swung the mace onto the deathstalker as Carsten rolled off, and within moments it became unconscious.

"Now to get you back to the lab" She picked it up like it was her own child, and while cuddling it she went back to her lab, saying things like, who's been a bad scorpion, and other pet talk things. As she left it spasmed a little, and she hit it with the mace again, putting it into a deeper sleep.


End file.
